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The MEK and the Bankrupt U.S. Policy on Iran

The fact that a group as dubious as the Mujahedin-e Khalq figures so prominently in the Trump administration’s policy on Iran demonstrates the bankruptcy of that policy.

Among the many indicators of misdirection in the Trump administration’s policy toward Iran, one of the clearest is the fondness for the cult-cum-terrorist group known as the Mujahedin-e Khalq, or MEK. The national security advisor, John Bolton, and Donald Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, are among the group’s most prominent cheerleaders, having been featured speakers at its rallies. They and other shills for the MEK refer to the group as if it represented what it decidedly is not: a democratic alternative to the current Iranian political system.

Journalist Arron Merat, an experienced Iran-watcher who formerly was the Economist’s Tehran correspondent, has just published a 6,600-word article about the MEK in the Guardian. The piece is well worth reading as it forms a richly informed and up-to-date portrait that leaves no doubt about the nature of the group and the ghastly inappropriateness of using the MEK in any way as a vehicle for U.S. policy in the region.

The MEK originated as a student movement that opposed the Shah of Iran and spouted an ideology that weirdly combined Islamism and Marxism. The group was virulently anti-American from the beginning. Its terrorist operations targeted American-owned businesses, and it killed six American citizens in addition to its far more numerous Iranian victims. The MEK was a major player in toppling the shah in the 1979 revolution but soon had a falling out with the new [Ayatollah] Khomeini regime—among other things, the group opposed the regime’s release of the American hostages held at the U.S. embassy. The group continued its terrorism, with the only difference being that the Islamic Republic had replaced the shah’s regime as a principal target.

With the eight-year Iran-Iraq War already underway, the MEK threw in its lot with Saddam Hussein. The Iraqi dictator gave the group weapons, cash, and a compound called Camp Ashraf in return for its continuing attacks inside Iran as well as helping Saddam suppress his own domestic opponents. Iranians understandably viewed this phase in the MEK’s history as an unforgivable act of treason, and whatever support the group previously had in Iran was erased.

Merat’s article provides details of the cult-like aspects of how the MEK has functioned, earlier at Camp Ashraf and more recently, after the group had to leave Iraq, at a compound in Albania. As cult leaders, the husband-and-wife duo of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi have resembled the likes of Jim Jones and Shoko Asahara. Families have been broken up, married couples told to divorce, and women threatened with punishment if they did not “marry” Massoud and endure his sexual abuse. (Massoud dropped out of sight after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and it is not known whether he is dead or alive. Maryam continues as the public face of the group.) Stomach-turning details continue to emerge from the MEK’s current location in Albania, including stories of forced hysterectomies and would-be escapees subjected to solitary confinement. The former head of Albanian military intelligence says that MEK members live in the group’s current compound as “hostages” amid “extraordinary psychological violence and threats of murder.”

The MEK’s efforts over the past two decades to convey a benign public image completely at odds with this internal reality, and to pose as a force for democracy in Iran, have depended on buying the public endorsements of well-known public figures. This has required money—lots of it. Five-figure speaking fees have flowed freely. Public disclosure forms indicate Bolton received $40,000 for a single appearance at an MEK event in Paris last year, and Merat gives an estimate of $180,000 as the total that Bolton has received for his multiple appearances on behalf of the group.

In addition to the generous big-name fees, lobbying for the MEK has apparently included other well-financed techniques. The crowd at the Paris event, for example, was supplemented by bussing in young people from Eastern Europe who enjoyed a free weekend in Paris. The group used the same rent-a-crowd technique for a demonstration outside the State Department when the MEK was ramping up its lobbying a few years ago to be delisted as a foreign terrorist organization. Some of the participants in that event were recruited at a homeless shelter in New York; they admitted knowing very little about the MEK but appreciated the free meals they were given for attending.

Where the money is coming from is still somewhat of a mystery. But some clues point to governments that are regional rivals of Iran as the most likely source.

Two further observations flow from this surprisingly successful but wholly unjustified remaking of the MEK’s image. One concerns how some famous—and perhaps otherwise respectable people—evidently have been willing to prostitute themselves to get in on those fat speaking fees. A wide range of political figures have played the game, from Howard Dean on the left to Bolton and many others on the right. Some of the players may have had little more understanding of the MEK when they got involved then did the guys from the homeless shelter in New York. Ed Rendell, a former Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, freely admitted that he knew little about the group when he accepted an invitation to speak at an event the MEK staged at a downtown Washington hotel. He then told his audience—in a demonstration of the self-sustaining nature of big-name endorsements—that the reputations of the other speakers at the same event persuaded him that it must be for a worthwhile cause.

Not everyone has succumbed to the monetary temptations. Tip your hat, for example, to Elliott Abrams, a card-carrying neoconservative who has had more than his share of misdirection in Middle East policy, for declining an invitation to speak at an MEK event. Abrams cited the fact that the group was still on the foreign terrorist organization list at the time, but the politically and morally inexcusable nature of advocating for such a group does not depend on such a formal list.

Disruption, Not Democracy

The other observation is that, while the shills have taken their fees to the bank, the fact that a group as dubious as the MEK figures so prominently in the administration’s policy on Iran demonstrates the bankruptcy of that policy. If the MEK is in the game, then we know the game is not about democracy, human rights, or doing right by ordinary Iranians. Bolton and at least some of the others who have touted the group are surely smart enough to realize that and to understand the true nature of the group. They appear to be less interested in democracy in Iran than in the capability for sabotage, destruction, and assassination in Iran—a capability that the MEK still has despite its claims to have forsaken violence.

Fostering that capability may serve the objectives of regional rivals who do their own sabotage, destruction, and assassination aimed against Iran and welcome the augmentation of their capabilities for mayhem that the MEK offers. It certainly does not serve the interests of the United States. It instead increases instability in—and thus around—Iran, strengthens the market for hardline views in Iran, and besmirches the reputation of the United States through associating itself with the MEK.

by Paul R. Pillar, National Interest

Paul R. Pillar is a contributing editor at the National Interest and the author of Why America Misunderstands the World.

November 14, 2018 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Bolton’s Favorite Deranged Cult

The Guardian has published a lengthy article by Arron Merat on the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK), and it details the group’s ongoing abuses and crimes at its new base in Albania. This is what John Bolton’s favorite “opposition” group does to its own members:

I spoke to about a dozen defectors, half of whom are still in Albania, who said that MEK commanders systematically abused members to silence dissent and prevent defections – using torture, solitary confinement, the confiscation of assets and the segregation of families to maintain control over members. In response to these allegations, an MEK spokesperson said: “The individuals who are described as ‘former members’ were being used as part of a demonisation campaign against the MEK.”

The testimony of these recent defectors follows earlier reports from groups such as Human Rights Watch, which reported former members witnessed “beatings, verbal and psychological abuse, coerced confessions, threats of execution and torture that in two cases led to death”.

It should be obvious that a group that abuses its own members so cruelly is unfit to hold political power over anyone. It is a disgrace that so many prominent American and European officials and politicians have aligned themselves with such a despicable organization, and it shows how willing many Iran hawks are to overlook the group’s horrific record because it gives them a convenient ally in their pursuit of regime change.

The MEK was removed from the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations six years ago, but that wasn’t because the government believed they had given up on using violence to achieve their goals:

Daniel Benjamin, who was then the head of counter-terrorism at the state department, told me that the US decided to remove the MEK from the list of foreign terrorist organisations not because it believed it had abandoned violence, but to “avoid them all getting killed” if it remained in Iraq [bold mine-DL]. After the MEK was no longer designated a terrorist group, the US was able to convince Albania to accept the 2,700 remaining members – who were brought to Tirana on a series of charter flights between 2014 and 2016.

The Obama administration’s concerns about the safety of the members were understandable, but the de-listing decision was clearly a mistake as many of us said at the time. Unfortunately, that decision has made it easier for a truly awful group to operate and buy more American support.

The cult was heavily dependent on Saddam Hussein during the first decades of their exile, but in recent years they have found a new patron that shares their hostility to Iran:

“The money definitely comes from Saudis,” says Ervand Abrahamian, a professor at the City University of New York and author of the definitive academic work on the group’s history, The Iranian Mojahedin. “There is no one else who could be subsidising them with this level of finance.”

It is not surprising that the MEK would have to rely on money from Iran’s regional rivals. The group has no support inside Iran and virtually none among Iranians in the diaspora, and so it makes sense that they would have to turn once again to a government that would presumably like to use them to harm Iran. Iranians understandably regard them as traitors for their role in the Iran-Iraq war and in their subsequent attacks on their former country. It is remarkable that a group that served as Saddam Hussein’s henchmen for decades could be so quickly and easily rehabilitated. The article recounts the MEK’s role as internal enforcers for Saddam Hussein’s regime, which used them to suppress the uprisings following the Gulf War:

Karwan Jamal Tahir, the Kurdistan regional government’s high representative in London, was a fighter for the Kurdish peshmerga in 1991. He told me that he remembers how the MEK arrived in the town of Kalar, about 93 miles (150km) south-east of Kirkuk, just after Saddam had lost control of the north of Iraq after the first Gulf war. “They came in Saddam’s tanks,” he said. “We thought they were returning peshmerga because the tanks were covered with portraits of Kurdish leaders … but they opened fire on the town … It was a big atrocity.”

An organization with a record of committing atrocities is clearly not one that should ever be entrusted with power in the future, but this hasn’t stopped Bolton, Giuliani, and many others from cheering for them and treating them as if they were Iran’s government-in-waiting. Whatever else it may claim to be, the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) is still a deranged totalitarian cult steeped in the blood of many innocent people. The Western politicians and officials that lend legitimacy to this group have discredited themselves on all matters relating to Iran.

By Daniel Larison

November 12, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Mossad To Use Mercenary MEK For Fatal False Flag Op In Albania

On October 30, Denmark claimed that Iran had sent intelligence agents to assassinate the leader of the Danish branch of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz (ASMLA). Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen robustly denounced the alleged plot as “totally unacceptable” and Denmark’s foreign ministry said it would urge other European countries to impose sanctions on Iran. The plot was apparently revenge for the terrorist attack on a military parade in Ahvaz Iran in September in which 29 people were killed. Iran however said it had already tracked down and killed ISIS operatives in Syria and Iraq which it blamed for the massacre. This prompts the question, why Iran would commit a further act of violence in Europe at a time when President Rouhani is on a diplomatic mission to persuade European leaders to maintain the JCPOA and resist following America in imposing sanctions?

According to Israeli journalist Barak Ravid, Mossad tipped off Denmark’s security and intelligence agency about the assassination plot. But this was only the latest in a series of similar alleged plots this year aimed at implicating Iran. In June on the eve of a visit by President Rohani to France, a bomb plot aimed at the Mojahedin Khalq (MEK) cult was also blamed on Iranian intelligence. Two of the plotters were subsequently found to have long term links with the MEK. Again, Mossad had given intelligence to the Belgians who made arrests. Again, the unanswered question is why would Iran do anything to jeopardise relations with Europe and threaten continuation of the JCPOA?

“Two of the plotters were subsequently found to have long term links with the MEK.”

Iran’s accusers have failed to explain this discrepancy. Reuters fantastically wrote: “Apparently, Iran is working hard behind the scenes to disrupt its relations with Europe.” Similarly, the Wall Street Journal, which ran a series of articles specifically on this issue, was unable to come up with a plausible explanation saying only that “The allegation that an Iranian operative plotted an attack on French soil is jeopardizing Europe’s support for the accord.” Again, why would this serve Iran’s interest? Perhaps then we must turn attention to these accusers to explain what is going on.

Earlier in March, Albanian police detained two Iranian journalists at a cultural event in Tirana. This time it was the MEK which falsely claimed Iran had sent agents to kill members of their group whose base is 30 kilometres away. The men had come to celebrate Nowruz at the invitation of the Bektashi’s World Chief Baba Mondi, on regular visas issued by the Albanian consulate in Turkey. The police subsequently apologised to the men and the Baba Mondi for the mistake. But even then the Albanian media was warning of false flag opsinvolving MEK.

A pattern emerges in all three cases: based on intelligence from Mossad the alleged assassination target – an anti-Iran, pro-West group – is identified, European security is quick to act, suspects are arrested, Reuters breaks the news, Iranian intelligence agents are implicated, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo immediately condemns Iran and his statements are further broadcast by American media, Iran denies any involvement, the WSJand other media embellish the story with imaginative detail of the individuals involved. Knowing that MEK leader Maryam Rajavi is among these accusers allows a clearer interpretation of events.

In the days leading up to the arrest in Denmark, Mojahedin Khalq (MEK) cult leader Maryam Rajavi held clandestine meetings with Israeli agents in the International Hotel in Tirana. Her presence in Albania provides a key to unlocking the mystery surrounding the plots allegedly involving Iranian intelligence accused of plotting to kill enemies on European soil.

As the MEK’s de facto leader, Rajavi’s role is to provide services to her backers – a virulently anti-Iran cabal from the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia – through the slave labour of MEK members. Rajavi receives funds to keep her group functioning but does not pass this money on to the members who do the work. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein the demands on MEK have changed. The cult’s new benefactor Prince Turki al-Faisal who made his presence felt at their Villepinte propaganda event in June 2016, is a former Intelligence chief. The MEK of Saddam/Massoud Rajavi which was overwhelmingly military/terrorist has now been replaced by the MEK of Turki/Maryam and is overwhelmingly intelligence/terrorist. MEK’s history of clandestine, intelligence-led activity is now being exploited. Rajavi is motivated by the survival of her cult. She will do whatever necessary to ensure the group does not disintegrate. As these authors explained in a previous article, MEK has a long history of self-serving bloodshed to boost morale and prevent further defections.

“In this context the MEK’s orders are clear; set up a situation to blame on Iran.”

In this context the MEK’s orders are clear; set up a situation to blame on Iran. There is precedence. In Iraq, from one year ahead of the controversial attack on Camp Ashraf which left 53 dead, MEK were shouting ‘Iran wants to kill us’. Iraqi investigators were not allowed to interview MEK survivors of the attack. Then later, in Albania, Malik Sharai, a witness to those events, was eliminated. Ex-members said he was about to leave the group. Similarly, while in Camp Liberty, MEK leaders began to cry victimhood days before a missile attack on the base which they blamed on Iran. Iraqi investigators found no link with Iran.

With this background, if it is remembered that MEK members are expendable, that their role is to sacrifice their lives, the stark conclusion is that fatalities will follow. And if the alleged plots by Iran which Foreign Minister Zarif describes as an “Incredible series of coincidences. Or, a simple chronology of a Mossad program to kill the JCPOA”, fail to drive a wedge between Iran and Europe, then clearly more drastic measures will be needed. Something that would force Europe to react against Iran. The logical conclusion would be the creation of a false flag operation involving an attack on MEK members in Albania (outside the European Union so that it cannot be thwarted or investigated) which leaves some dead, and which can be blamed on Iran. Rajavi would be happy to fulfil this order since this would fill the bank of the “blood of martyrs” as she calls the MEK’s sacrifices. It would also motivate the disaffected members who are regularly leaving the cult – last week alone 6 people managed to escape. With this in mind, Maryam Rajavi’s meetings with Israeli agents in the International Hotel in Tirana would indicate that a fatal event is imminent.

By Anne and Massoud Khodabandeh, Iranian.com,

November 5, 2018 0 comments

Maryam Rajavi

What is Maryam Rajavi doing in Albania?

Since the relocation of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi) in Albania, the co-leader Maryam Rajavi has traveled from Paris to Tirana several times. She usually travels to Tirana for especial occasions such as New Year’s celebration or to receive the paid American supporters of the group who are invited to the base. One instance was Senator John McCain who visited Maryam Rajavi in the group’s base in Tirana in April 2017.

According to the insiders of the MKO, Maryam Rajavi is once more in Tirana but it seems that this time the trip has a different reason. She is residing at International Hotel, Tirana where she holds meetings with commanders and senior members of the group.

What has driven her to the group’s base in Albania and stay there for a long period of time? She might have found it vital to reorganize her group in the absence of her disappeared husband Massoud Rajavi.

The major reason might be the increasing number of defection from the group. During the past week, at least three ex-members of the group officially announced their disassociation from the MKO and declared their readiness to denounce its abusive and violent nature. Azim MishMast, GholamAli Mirzaiee and Musa Damrudi are the most recently defected ones. All of the three were among the longstanding members of the group who left it after at least three decades.

These are just a few examples of those who officially declared their defection. Definitely, the number of defectors are far more than what is broadcasted in the media. Once the MKO was resettled in Albania, the situation became safer for defectors compared with Iraq where most members were terrified by the leaders for what they called the influence of the Iranian regime—however, hundreds of members of the MKO left the group in Iraq, especially after the disarmament of the group by the US military in 2003.

After the relocation in Albania, a large number left the group secretly and in silence. Zeinab Hosseinnejad whose father Ghorbanali had left the group a few years earlier, could manage to leave the MKO and move to Greece. Her defection was not covered in the media until last week that her sister Mona and her father travelled to Greece to visit her. The tragic videos of the reunion of the Hosseinnejads after so many years of separation was widely viewed in the social media.

Today, Maryam Rajavi’s primary struggle is the preservation of members inside the cult-like structure of the group. As she tries to convince members to stay in the organization, her so-called struggle for freedom and democracy makes no sense.

In fact, while she uses the group’s propaganda tribunes to boast of her riot units (or the so-called resistance units) in Iran, she actually is fighting the resistance units that has been established by the suppressed members inside her group.

An insider from the group has revealed that long-time manipulative meetings are organized in the group’s headquarters in Manez Durres in North of Tirana. The MKO’s secretary General Zahra Merikhi runs the sessions in which she accuses members for not being enough dedicated to the cult jargon “Cleansing on the Scene”.

Cleansing on the Scene includes self-disclosure of sexual thoughts. Members have to disclose all their sexual thoughts and desires before their peers and peers, in their turn, are tasked with verbally abusing them. This is a process of cleansing to win the struggle against Iranian regime, according to the leaders of the MKO.

The prominent paid supporter of the MKO John Bolton promised the overthrow of the Islamic Republic before 2019, in a paid speech at the group’s rally in July 2017. Now, there are only two months left to the promised moment. The group leaders have to endeavor a big challenge to keep the members in order to prevent the collapse of their establishment, let alone the overthrow of the Iranian Government.

Mazda Parsi

November 4, 2018 0 comments

Missions of Nejat Society Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

IRAN BLOG: Bully boy Trump mocks Iranians with ‘GoT’ economic winter meme

Game of Thrones producer HBO responded to Trump’s use of its imagery by saying it”would prefer our trademark not be misappropriated for political purposes”.

Some things require little analysis. Let’s just ask what kind of a jerk would take pleasure in mimicking a Game of Thrones advertising campaign—“Sanctions Are Coming, November 5”—in a way that will have the effect of menacing ordinary Iranians with the prospect of more economic misery.

And let’s be done with it, for the plain fact is that on November 2, without giving any guarantees for supplies of basic foods and medicine, Donald J. Trump announced that in three days’ time all US sanctions removed under the 2015 nuclear deal would be reimposed on Iran.

The referencing of the fantasy TV series’ meme—“Winter Is Coming”—which the HBO TV network and stars of the hit show immediately objected to occurred as the US president warned the Islamic Republic was about to face”the toughest sanctions regime ever imposed on Iran”with the existing sanctions targeting to be expanded to include the country’s oil, gas, petrochemicals, shipping and banking sectors.

The one concession was that eight countries—which various news agency reports said would include Turkey, India, Italy, Japan and South Korea—would not be penalised by the US for continuing to import Iranian oil, although they would be expected to gradually reduce shipments to zero.

According to the IMF, the US sanctions campaign has already plunged Iran into recession, and one might think that a civilised nation would need to form some kind of international consensus before subjecting a country of 81mn people to such distress. But Washington, aside from the vocal support it receives from a few allies such as Israel and Saudi Arabia, is going it alone. The other five major powers that signed the nuclear accord that is supposed to shield Iran from crippling sanctions—France, Germany, the UK, Russia and China—have stayed in the agreement, pointing out that the Iranians remain in full compliance with its measures restricting the Iranian nuclear development programme.

Perhaps, just perhaps, the Trump administration might ease up on Iran a little when the campaigning fever dissolves after the November 6 US midterm elections, but don’t count with it. On November 2, it also emerged that European governments have so far failed to persuade the White House to ensure Iran will remain able to take delivery of basic foods and medicine after the imposition of the blanket sanctions.

“Thousands of patients… at risk”

“There’s no doubt that the lives of thousands of patients will be at risk,” Ahmad Ghavideh of Iran’s haemophilia society told the Guardian by phone from Tehran after the newspaper discovered that the UK, French and German ambassadors to the US made joint visits to the American Treasury and State Departments in September in an unsuccessful effort to persuade the administration to produce a “white list”. Such a list would give clear guidelines on what channels European banks and companies should follow to conduct legitimate transactions with Iran without fear of future penalties.

Humanitarian supplies are officially exempted from the sanctions, but risk-averse foreign banks and companies have in the past steered clear of all transactions with Iran for fear of being penalised. Severe shortages of life-saving medicines and food staples were experienced by the country in the years preceding the 2015 agreement endorsed by Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama.

“We are expecting our American friends to make some gestures on humanitarian goods,” Gerard Araud, the French ambassador to Washington was quoted by the newspaper report as saying. “Of course humanitarian goods are not sanctioned. But the fact is the banks are so terrified of sanctions that they don’t want to do anything with Iran. It means that in a few months, there is a strong risk that there will be shortage of medicine in Iran if we don’t do something positive.”

Official line

The official line from the Trump administration is that this toughest ever sanctions assault has not been engineered to deliver regime change in Iran, but it’s common knowledge among diplomats that White House National Security Advisor and uber-hawk John Bolton believes the regime will collapse.

That, however, is highly debatable. US officials spend a lot of time making the case that the Iranian people are biding their time awaiting outside assistance that will enable the toppling of the powers that be. But if great swathes of the population are so deeply unhappy with the system—a parliamentary democracy vetted and supervised by a theocracy headed by an unelected supreme leader—why is it that the Iranians show such immense enthusiasm come general election time (in the May 2017 poll, centrist and pragmatic President Hassan Rouhani was re-elected with a landslide on a turnout of more than 70%)?

Indeed, so out of touch with the feelings of ordinary Iranians is the Trump regime (apologies for that slip of the key) that its Iran strategy has even included aligning with the cult-like Islamic-Socialist Iranian opposition group Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MeK). The MeK has no support of significance in Iran. It is a fringe group which lost out on the spoils after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and achieved deep unpopularity among the Iranian people by taking Iraq’s side in the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88. The last most people had heard of it before Trump’s surrogates started appearing at its rallies was that it had gone into exile in Albania.

Whipping boy

But why dwell on such distractions? One thing is clear right now and that is that Iran has become America’s number one whipping boy (the egregious sins of other players in the Middle East, such as Israel and Saudi Arabia, be damned) and it has a bully pulpit list of 12 demands from US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that it must comply with—or else.

The list—which is in fact by design clearly a non-starter for Iran—includes tighter restrictions on nuclear and ballistic missile development and the reversal of decades of foreign policy underpinned by financial and logistical support for US-designated terrorist groups and regional allies, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Shiite militias instrumental in defeating ISIS in Iraq, Houthi rebels in Yemen and President Bashar Assad in Syria.

In Washington’s eyes, even though Iran is in the Middle East it is not allowed to defend its interests in the Middle East. Perhaps it should start taking more of an interest in Venezuela? “They are maximalist demands and no Iranian government would be willing or able to accept them,” Robert Einhorn, a former US official now at the Brookings Institution, told Reuters on November 1.

Trump wants Iran’s government to capitulate or collapse, Einhorn reportedly added, saying: “They are not going to knuckle under. But if the administration began to signal some flexibility … it’s possible the Iranian regime would agree to enter into talks.”

EU’s collective resolve “unwavering”

On November 2, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini issued a joint statement with the British, French and German foreign ministers in which they stated how they “deeply regret” the reimposition of the US sanctions and would continue working on ways of keeping legitimate trade with Iran going.

“Our collective resolve to complete this work is unwavering,” the statement added.

President Rouhani, while pledging that Iran will show resilience, patriotic spirit and ingenuity in resisting the US economic attack, has also spent the past couple of days bracing Iranians for hard times. The Iranian lira has already collapsed and runaway inflation is taking hold. “I cannot even buy rice to feed my children or pay my rent,” elementary school teacher Pejman Sarafnejad, 43, a father of three in Tehran, was quoted by Reuters as saying on November 2.

Unmistakably, the immediate horizon looks perilous for Iran, but while Trump may have the whip-hand at this moment in time, analysts question whether, longer term, the US will emerge the victor having shown such disparaging disdain for multilateralism.

The sanctions, runs the theory, have potentially opened the way for a historic change in the global financial system. If Europe succeeds in creating a financial mechanism for trade with Iran that is separate from the US dollar, other states can start using euros for trade with the Iranians, dealing a blow to US domination of global markets.

Not only that, but Trump’s scorning of international agreements such as the painstakingly negotiated nuclear deal might prompt a shift in international power politics, with other major nations moving for a switch from an American-led system to a multi-polar world. Trump might end up laughing on the other side of his face. At that point, of course, he should be presented with a courtesy copy of Game of Thrones for Dummies.

By Will Conroy in Prague ,intellinews.com

November 3, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

The Fanaticism of the MEK’s Cheerleaders

Rudy Giuliani shills for the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) again:

We strongly support the largest and most organized Iranian opposition, known as the Mujahedin e-Khalq (MEK).

The MEK has no support inside Iran, and it has scant support among Iranians in the diaspora. They cannot be the “largest” opposition group when they have virtually no supporters outside the ranks of their own totalitarian cult, and it doesn’t mean anything to say that a cult is organized. Giuliani’s lame argument that the MEK must be powerful and influential because the Iranian government hates them doesn’t pass the laugh test. The Iranian government perceives the MEK as their enemy for obvious reasons, but it doesn’t follow that Iranians want to have anything to do with them. Legitimate opponents of the Iranian government hold this group and its Western fans in contempt, and most Iranians don’t desire the regime change that Western Iran hawks and the MEK seek.

Giuliani is just one of many former American officials and retired officers to embarrass and discredit themselves by advocating for the MEK, but he is also one of the most vocal. As the president’s lawyer, he has access to Trump and may be able to influence him on matters relating to Iran, and his fellow MEK booster John Bolton would have no problem with that. It is a measure of how ideological and fanatical many Iran hawks are that they have cultivated a relationship with such an appalling organization.

No matter what one thinks our Iran policy should be, the MEK is not a credible alternative to the current government. Seeking regime change in Iran is folly, but to promote an obnoxious cult as the answer to Iran’s problems is simply insanity. In addition to being a nasty cult, the group is responsible for killing Americans in the 1970s and aligned itself with Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq war. Iranians understandably view them as traitors. Anyone who is cheerleading for the MEK is advertising both his ignorance of Iran and his hostility to the Iranian people.

By Daniel Larison ,Randy Miramontez / Shutterstock.com

November 1, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Concern over UK-based Iranian TV channel’s links to Saudi Arabia

A UK-based Iranian TV station is being funded through a secretive offshore entity and a company whose director is a Saudi Arabian businessman with close links to the Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Guardian can reveal.

The disclosures are likely to raise concerns about the editorial independence of Iran International, and comes at a time of growing fears about a number of Saudi-linked stations operating across London.

A source has told the Guardian that Prince Mohammed, who many believe is responsible for the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, is the force behind Iran International. The station, which is operating out of Chiswick, has not denied claims that it receives its funding from the Saudi royal court.

Iran International TV emerged abruptly on the London media scene last year; many of the 100-strong staff network were offered generous salaries, often double what rivals paid, but was elusive about its source of funding.

Millions of Iranians frustrated with a state broadcaster hobbled by censorship watch satellite channels via illegal rooftop dishes. London has become a hub of such exiled Iranian channels, which also include BBC’s Persian service and Manoto TV, which has broadcast Iranian versions of The X Factor and Come Dine With Me.

The source claimed Saud al-Qahtani, the crown prince’s information tsar, who was among two senior officials removed in connection with the Khashoggi affair, was involved in the funding behind Iran International TV.

“You could have a larger picture about how those kids [Saudi media moguls] with that money being thrown around [by Prince Mohammed] trying to change the world by buying media … It is money coming from the royal court,” the source said, when speaking about the crown prince..

Iran International said any suggestions that the network was involved in some type of wrongdoing, or was subject to inappropriate influences or was not editorially independent were without foundation.

While Saudi Arabia shows zero tolerance for criticism of its absolute monarchy, as underlined by Khashoggi’s murder, it is setting up media organisations in other languages promoting free speech, particularly about Iran.

Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi, a postdoctoral research fellow in modern Iranian history at the University of Oxford, said: “While there is little doubt that the heavy hand of the Iranian state has its fair share of responsibility for this state of affairs and the lack of public trust in the state broadcaster, it appears that Iran International is part and parcel of the Saudi crown prince’s decision to take a more aggressive posture against Iran, emboldened, no doubt, by the Trump administration.”

Employing a wide range of people in the Iranian diaspora, including human rights activists, Iran International has not disclosed any Saudi Arabian funding links to its staff of many Iranian nationals, potentially putting their families in Iran at risk.

“I was told that not even one Saudi rial is in the funding. If I knew it came from Saudi, I would not have joined the station,” one insider said. “I can say that Iran International TV has turned into a platform … for ethnic partisanship and sectarianism.”

Earlier this summer, the station was criticised for airing extensive live coverage of a rally by the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), a cult-like organisation that espouses regime change and has links to Saudi Arabia. Senior Trump administration officials, including John Bolton, are advocates of the group, which was listed as a terrorist group in the US until 2012.

The insider claimed the editorial content of the station had been influenced by its secret investors who were hidden behind an offshore Cayman Islands company. The MEK coverage, the insider said, was one such example.

Ofcom has recently scrutinised Iran International for giving airtime to the spokesperson of a group that praised a terrorist attack in Iran last month.

Volant Media, the company that runs Iran International, has a director named Adel Abdulkarim, who is a Saudi national. He has had a long working relationship with well-connected Saudi executives, some of who have links to the royal court, including Abdulrahman al-Rashed, who sits on the board of Saudi Research and Marketing Group (SRMG), the largest publishing company in the Middle East.

Multiple sources claim Rashed, who is the former general manager of the Saudi-owned news channel Al Arabiya, was also involved in the operations and funding behind Iran International.

Nabeel Al-Khatib, a consultant working with Iran International, has been described by its editors to staff as supervisor of the station or representative of the investors. It has been claimed Iran International editors have used Khatib’s Palestinian nationality to remain evasive about the channel’s Saudi funding. The Guardian has seen leaked documents that suggest he raised questions and offered input into Iran International’s coverage of human rights in Saudi Arabia, as well as suggesting certain story ideas, particularly related to Iran and Saudi Arabia. Khatib denied influencing editorial decisions and said he was an independent consultant who offered services to broadcast companies around the world.

Last month, Khatib emerged as Bloomberg Asharq project director in a deal signed between Bloomberg and SRMG.

According to one source, Saudi Arabia gave $250m (£197m) in funding to help the launch of Iran International, which runs no commercial advertising. The source did not give a timeframe, but a scrutiny of its office’s rent and employee salaries points to an initial five-year period – $50m per year. Volant Media lost £26m in 2017, according to accounts filed on 4 October.

One former employee said many staff were stuck between a rock and a hard place. “They have realised they have not been told the truth about the Saudi paymasters behind the station but at the same time they can’t afford to resign or leave their job instantly for fear of incurring repayments under their contracts. Some rely on the television’s visa sponsorship to be able to continue living in London,” the former staff member said.

Gary Sick, who served in the US national security council under the Carter administration, said both Iran and Saudi Arabia were making active use of media in their regional rivalry.

“Iran’s Press TV is full of negative stories about the Saudi leadership, and official (and unofficial) Saudi media portray Iran as the single greatest source of instability and terrorism in the Middle East,” he said.

Rob Beynon, the acting head of the television station, did not deny that funding for it came from the Saudi royal court.

“[Iran International] provides news for all Iranians, in Iran and in the diaspora, reflective of the widest range of opinions. Our output is governed not by any external individuals but by our editorial guidelines, which are published in English and Farsi on our website,” Beynon said.

He added: “It is transparent and impartial, as you can see from our output. The management structure is as you would expect in any news organisation. Decisions are taken by our senior editorial managers, who report to me.”

Saeed Kamali Dehghan Iran correspondent, the Guardian.com

October 31, 2018 0 comments

Albania

The fortified headquarters of Iranian Mojahedin Khalq in Albania

Last February, the occhidella guerra reported the transfer of 3,500 mujahideen to Albania. The Mek was previously kept at a base near Baghdad (Liberty Camp). Among other things, it referred to their new headquarters being constructed in Manez, near Durre. Today there are further evidence that confirm this project and much more. But let’s go in order.

What is the Mek

The Mek or Mojahedin Khalq Organisation of Iran is an organization which was born in 1963 in Iran with the aim of opposing the Western influence in the country and fighting the regime of the Shah. In 1979 the Mek participated in the revolution led by [Ayatollah]Khomeini but the ideology, a crossroads of Marxism, feminism and Islamism, clashed with that of the Ayatollahs.

In 1981 the Mek moved to Paris where Massoud Rajavi (The leader) founded his headquarters and five years later moved to Camp Ashraf, north of Baghdad, from where he supported and joined the war of Saddam Hussein against Iran. MEK also engaged in the repression of the Kurds on behalf of Saddam. In 2003 the Mek was disarmed by the Americans and moved to Camp Liberty. The Mek continued to play a role in the political and diplomatic activities against Tehran and continues to do so today.

Previously, the organization was blacklisted not only by Iran and Iraq, but also by the European Union, Britain, the US and Canada, only to be “cleared” between 2008 and 2012. A New York Times article by September 21, 2012 illustrated how the then Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, had decided to clear the Mek , making it remove from the “black list” to be able to then put it away from the reach of Tehran, in a country willing to welcome them, in this Albania. The goal is more than evident: use the Mek to support a regime change in Tehran. But why in Albania? What is a “pledge” to pay for entry into Europe and NATO?

Today it is Maryam Rajavi who leads the Mek after the mysterious disappearance of her husband Massoud that coincides with the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. Some sources speak of a possible death while others say that the former leader is in hiding to escape the agents of Tehran.

Political support at the international level

The Mek has received support from various international political figures including former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, US ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton and Emma Bonino as vice-president of the Senate in June 2012. The New York Times noted that several members of Congress had become staunch supporters of the movement that, if once Marxist-Islamist, then changed its mind by transforming its own struggle and becoming the main organized movement against the Iranian government.

According to the New York newspaper, among the supporters of the Mek there would be R. James Woolsey and Porter J. Goss, former directors of the CIA; Louis J. Freeh, former director of the FBI; Tom Ridge, former Secretary of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush; Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey and national security advisor, General James L. Jones, operating under the Obama administration.

In the last year there have been several positions in favor of Mek by members of the national and international political scene. In mid-September an official delegation of the Italian Radical Party and the “Hands off Cain” association visited the mujahidin headquarters in Albania. The delegation included Elisabetta Zamparutti, Sergio D’Elia, Rita Bernardini, Mattia Moro, Maria Antonietta and Luca Coscioni; Albanian sources claim that the members of the Mek would provide an account of the violations of human rights implemented by the regime in Tehran.

Last June 30, it was the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Monti government, Giulio Terzi, who spoke at a meeting of the Mek where, in front of thousands of anti-Tehran protesters, he announced his “unconditional support to the Mek”, defining his militants “freedom fighters” and saying that “a large part of Italian society is convinced that being on your side means being on the right side of history”. The whole speech was published on the Mek website and can be viewed here.

Even the former mayor of New York, Rudolph Giuliani, in 2018 expressed himself at least on a couple of occasions in favour of the Mek with statements like: “The Iranian people have had enough of this regime that will be overthrown … We have no doubt that the Mek coalition can cope with this regime “.

And again: “The mullahs have to leave, the ayatollahs have to leave and must be replaced by a democratic government that Mrs. Rajavi represents”, as reported by the Guardian.

In short, yet another attempt to overthrow the government to export “democracy”, a film already seen and revised.

Last September 26, the Albanian journalist Kastriot Myftaraj, during the television program “Ju flet Moska“, had criticized the recent invocations to the uprising in Iran by the leader of the Mek, Maryam Rajavi, bringing up the article 221 of the Albanian penal code that punishes incitement to insurrection with penalties ranging from 15 years upwards.

Article 265 b / c of the Albanian penal code which prohibits involvement in military operations and violent actions in foreign countries should also be taken into consideration.

The Manez headquarters

Numerous international sources have documented the presence of a large complex near the Albanian village of Manez, which serves as the main base for the Mek, a complex that has already been inhabited even though it is still being completed. Several local reporters have witnessed the presence of private armed guards outside the complex, a barrier and further unarmed guards inside.

The well-known Albanian investigative journalist Gjergj Thanasi was among the first to notice the presence of Manez and had shown the dynamics of the Eyes of War last February:

“The Council of the Territorial Organization (Keshilli i Rregullimit te Territorit) is responsible for issuing permits for the construction of public works and private buildings (factories, hotels, schools, roads, etc.). This Council had published a list of permits issued for a series of works and among them there was one against an NGO called F.A.R.A. The permit was dated 16 October 2017 and indicated the authorization for “a residential complex and services for the Iranian community in Albania”. At that point I investigated this F.A.R.A that, strangely and contrary to the Albanian law, was not registered with the Tax Office and did not even have a VAT number, which is prohibited in Albania.

I then continued the investigation at the town planning office of the town of Durres (which I know very well having lived here for 52 years); there they showed me a written request from the F.A.R.A. in which permission was requested for the creation of a building site (fence, water connections, electricity, containers, etc.) and it emerged that the Municipality had not issued any permit. The letter of request did not have a header, there was no address or telephone number. At this point I went to Manez (in the first week of November 2017) to see what was happening and I found myself in front of a finished fence, an already installed electricity grid, and some channels under construction, for the water network. There was also a container with offices inside the fence. Around the yard there were guards and also three policemen with the uniform of the State Police “.

The site would have been located precisely between the villages of Kulles and Manez e-Vieter, with entrance on the Rruga Lalezit road and the complex there are several aerial images and films.

On August 10th, British journalist Lindsey Hilsum of Channel 4 went outside the Manez complex to document its existence and was physically attacked by some members of the Mek.

According to reports from the Albanian media, some witnesses said that security guards tried to tear and break the crew camera while some members of the Mek hit Hilsum and took their chaperone by the neck. At that point, Albanian police officers arrived on the spot and stopped the attack and accompanied the two assaulted men to the barracks.

Later, a spokesman for the Mek told the Albanian media that British journalists are in contact with the Iranian secret services and that they had not been advised of their arrival.

The case of Somaya Mohammadi and interviews with dissidents

Another case that is doing a lot of discussion in Albania is that of Mostafa Mohammadi, father of 38-year-old Somaya, who left home when he was 16 together with a militant woman from the Mek.

Mostafa explained that he had immigrated to Canada with his family in 1994 and entered the orbit of the Mek, helping them raise funds but in the meantime the organization would brainwash his sister, convincing her years later to move to Iraq, Camp Ashraf, to fight the Iranian regime. She die on the spot during military attacks or could have been executed if arrested. Years later a Mek militant would have approached his daughter Somaya, telling her that they have met her aunt (with whom the girl had a close relationship) and that she would like to show her where she had been and what she had done. So the they went off on a journey that only lasted two weeks but Somaya never returned home, cutting all contacts with her family.

Last July Mostafa Mohammadi went to Tirana to try to raise the case and get in touch with his daughter, which he said was held against her will in the Manez headquarters and accused some members of the Mek of attacking him , as reported by Shqiptarija and Gazeta Impakt who also published a video.

The Canadian, Iraqi and Albanian judiciary have however expressed themselves against Mohammadi’s accusations, declaring that the girl is voluntarily a member of the organization and being an adult, she is able to make her own decisions in autonomy and freedom.

On 25 July 2018 Somaya released an interview where he rejected the accusations made by his father, claiming to be a voluntary member of the Mek and accusing his father of collaborating with the Iranian secret services. A controversial case whose dynamics are still unclear.

The Albanian investigative program Fiks Fare managed to get in touch with three of the 200 dissidents who have fled from the MEK in Albania and interviewed them, as also reported by the Prishtina Post.

All three confirmed that the mujahideen housed in the camp are all well-trained fighters and that it is strictly forbidden to maintain contact with their families.

The first interviewed, Sadolah Seifi, explained that he was born in 1969 and that he joined Mek voluntarily at 21 for economic reasons. Seifi explained that initially the Mek speaks of freedom, but in fact it is “a frightening organization” with many agents who force their followers to do what the leader says, and it is strictly forbidden to have a family. According to Seifi the main problem of those who would like to leave the Mek is that in Albania they do not have a status, they cannot work and they do not have money to live.

The second interviewee, Ehsan Bidi, confirmed the military preparation of the mujahidin, adding that he learned a lot about weapons and their use; Bidi also claimed that the Mek at the time sent men in to Iran to place bombs and conduct terrorist acts.

The third interviewee, Manuchehr Abdi, 55 years of which 13 years with the Mek, pointed out that in Albania the organization is trying to reconstruct the same context that was present in the Iraqi base.

On military training Abdi said: “When I was part of the organization I was a member of a group that virtually connected with young people in Iran and taught them to fight, because we need to know that everyone in this organization knows how to fight to kill, we are militarily prepared we know everything about weapons “.

Regarding the family context, the interviewee made it clear that visits to his family were forbidden in Camp Ashraf and that he himself could not have contact with his daughter. A situation that is also present in Albania following agreements with the Tirana government.

In conclusion

What is the Mek then? A group of dissidents and persecuted by the Iranian regime? A sectarian force of opposition composed of militarily trained elements ready to overthrow the regime? A terrorist organization? (According to what was stated by Tehran). Where do the Mek funding come from?

In geopolitics it is known that an organization can be considered “terrorist” or “resistance movement” based on the interests of those who support it and have seen it with many other organizations, from the Muslim Brotherhood to Hizbullah, from the PLO to the “resistance” “Syrian. What is certain is that it is difficult to combat terrorism when we cannot even find a universally shared definition of the term.

Meanwhile, however, the presence in Albania of the Mek does nothing but further aggravate the delicate situation in the Balkans where jihadist and Islamist groups are already present. The Balkan area seems more and more a logistics and transit area in support of the war policies in the Middle East and all this at the expense of regional stability, Italy included.

Giovanni Glacalone, Cliocchidella Guerra, Rome, Italy,Google Translation with Iran Interlink editing

October 29, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

MEK is responsible for thousands of deaths in Iran

Is there no crime so obvious, so egregious and so blatant that it won’t be overlooked by United States President Donald Trump, if doing so suits his twisted needs? He looks past Israeli barbarity, despite the obvious, unspeakable human rights abuses that that rogue, racist apartheid nation commits. He ignores the abject suffering caused by U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. He excuses, with barely a mention, the Saudi bombing of a school bus full of Yemeni children. And now he is overlooking the cold-blooded murder of a Saudi journalist, which that government even concedes, after several rather incredulous stories, that it is, indeed, responsible for.

Any other U.S. president, Democrat or Republican, would certainly see this as a reason to at least review the U.S.’s unqualified support for the Saudi regime. He or she would express horror not only at the murder itself, but at the targeted silencing of a member of the press, one critical of Saudi Arabia. The massive arms sales to Saudi Arabia agreed upon would at least put on hold, while the entire situation is reviewed.

But not Trump; he was first happy to say that there must be some other explanation for why Jemal Khashoggi, a journalist for the Washington Post, entered the Saudi embassy in Turkey to obtain a marriage license, and never came out. Then, after numerous denials by the Saudi government that it had no knowledge of what may have happened, they stated that Khoshoggi died in a fistfight in the embassy! While this may be a prize winner in any contest for the most outrageous and unbelievable statements any government has ever made, Trump was happy to accept it.

Then, when the Saudi regime finally said that ‘rogue’ members of the government (are there any other kind in Saudi Arabia?) were responsible, Trump seemed perfectly content with that explanation. What consequences the perpetrators will experience is not known, nor are any expected. Certainly, none of this will impact U.S. relations with the Saudi regime.

One need not wonder why this is. Trump has set the U.S.’s deadly sites on Iran, and seeks Saudi support to implement whatever destructive and illegal plans he may have for that nation. Never mind that Saudi Arabia supports such terrorist groups as Jibhat al-Nusra, an organization that is on the U.S.’s official ‘terrorist’ list. The U.S. happily supports other terrorist groups in Syria and other locations around the world, so why object to one that the U.S. itself condemns?

U.S. spokespeople have praised the Mujahedin-E Khalq organization (MEK), which is responsible for thousands of deaths in Iran since 1979, and is now active outside that country, attempting to foment the overthrow of the government. The U.S. would be only too happy to see them succeed, and turn Iran into the chaos and disaster that Iraq and Yemen are today. Fortunately for Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp prevents the MKO from having any significant power in Iran.

And so what if the brutal Saudi war on Yemen is causing millions of people to die of starvation? Why should the U.S. object to that, as long as it can enlist Saudi Arabia in its anti-Iran plans. Trump has stated more than once that the U.S. needs Saudi Arabia for that purpose, so basically whatever horrendous atrocities Saudi Arabia commits will be overlooked.

Since the U.S. is so busy condemning Iran while it ignores the unspeakable human rights abuses of some of its allies, including Saudi Arabia, let’s see what it is that Iran has done that has brought about Trump’s wrath.

+ Iran has supported and continues to support the legitimate Syrian government against U.S.-sponsored rebel groups. This has increased Iran’s power, influence and prestige in the Middle East, and since Israel wants complete hegemony in that part of the world, Iran’s growth cannot be tolerated.

+ Iran’ government supports the human rights struggles of the Palestinian people; in so doing, it also supports international law, something which the U.S. holds in contempt.

+ Iran is allied with Russia, which is the new enemy du jour of the U.S.

+ Lastly, the U.S. has not been able to ever accept that the people of Iran overthrew the brutal, oppressive, U.S-installed puppet, the Shah of Iran, in 1979. This will never do, since Iran, as of 1979, ceased bowing to the U.S. master.

It may be difficult for Trump, who’s attention span rivals that of a 2-year old, who believes that if he or she can’t see something, it no longer exists, to understand the rich history and culture of Iran. Consider the Cyrus Cylinder, dating from the sixth century, B.C., and discovered in Iraq in 1879. This artifact is sometimes seen as the first declaration of human rights known to man.

And what of the revolution, mentioned above? This was truly a people’s movement, indicating the power that people have over even the most brutal and powerfully-backed oppressor. Democracy, anyone?

Let’s compare now the number of countries that the U.S has invaded, just since World War II, with the number Iran invaded during that same time period. The total for the U.S is 16 (18, if you count Lebanon and Iraq twice). Here is the list: Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, Dominican Republic, Angola, Lebanon (twice), Grenada, Panama, Kuwat, Iraq (twice), Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Syria. This, of course, is in addition to supporting brutal rebels in many democratic nations that didn’t toe the U.S. line.

Now, for the list of countries that Iran has invaded since World War II. The total is 0. One needs to look back to 1798 for the last time Iran invaded another nation.

Let’s look now to the current year. A White House report called the ‘Report on the Legal and Policy Frameworks Guiding the United States’ Military Force and Related National Security Operations’, or, unofficially, the war report, issued in March of this year, indicates that the U.S. is currently at war in seven countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, and Niger. Iran, by comparison, is supporting Syria, its ally, against foreign-financed and trained terrorists.

But according to the U.S. government, it is Iran that is the world’s foremost sponsor of world terrorism. It is Iran that is the major abuser of human rights. It is Iran that is causing untold trouble around the world.

It has been said that if one tells a lie often enough, eventually it will be believed. Trump seems to rely on this, as he attempts to prepare the hapless U.S. citizens for another needless, deadly, devastating war. But those citizens should beware: Iran is not Iraq. It is a large and powerful country, with powerful allies. The U.S. will wage war on Iran to its own detriment. It is hoped that such a war will never happen.

by Robert Fantina, CounterPunch,

October 28, 2018 0 comments

USA

A sharp decline in America’s power

Everything began from a memory; a memory of the future of the reality of US policies and some officials.
Secretary of the National Security Council, Mr. Shamkhani, quoted a memory of his Educational period which is Remarkable.
The content of this memory is that he faces an interesting phenomenon in helping his classmate in the exam session, which is that the classmate attached Shamkhani’s help sheet to his exam sheet, and the result is the failure of both.

The reason for attaching the help sheet was that the classmate had a meeting with his fiancée and has done this because of the lack of time.
Shamkhani attribute this memory to Bolton, the national security advisor to Trump and said:” Apparently John Bolton also has an appointment. ”

He also said that:” It is a shame for a government to basing Bolton for Strategic Decision Making against Iran, the person who cooperates with MKO. At least, change the words”
The compliance of the US government with a terrorist cult of the MKO does not mean increasing the power of this cult, but it means a sharp decline in America’s power.

The country that claimed to have a superpower on a day and regarded itself as the only power of the world, now is in a position to ask for help from terrorist sects such as the MKO to achieve its goals.
A country that claims to operate the world order and seeks to establish peace and human rights, it has to shelter to sects, which are the ultimate mirror of assassination and violence.
According to many experts, the national and strategic documents of a country represent the horizons of a country’s vision.

Also, most of these documents are prepared and drafted by experts and on the basis of current and future prospects, but take a look at the US strategic documents.
Recent comments by Mr. Shamkhani, secretary of the National Security Council about the unchanged texts of the MKO in the US strategic document and quoted by some US officials, such as John Bolton, are not.
This deniable truth makes America’s strategy doesn’t include the realities and the desirable future.
The question is, who is the reference of US news and strategic texts about Iran and what are the characteristics?
The answer to this question can tell the American authorities the misconception about the facts.

According to evidence, the terrorist sect of the MKO impose their views by communicating with some naïve US officials And presents the obvious news inside Iran as secret and strategic texts.
But history should reminded to these naïve authorities to understand this terrorist cult better and not simply accept their words.
The MKO, with a history of the assassination of 17,000 innocent people in Iran, has always been a part of the disgusting group of public opinion, and they always will remember this.
A sect known for treason, assassination, war, and has always faced a strategic mistake in its judgments about the Iranian nation, how can present these realities to American officials?

The sect has committed historical mistakes including “the leftist conception of the Islamic Revolution, the idea of the people’s companionship with them, the conquest of Tehran in a few days, electoral predictions and, eventually, the collapse of today and tomorrow in the Islamic Republic of Iran” and to get out of this swamp, it has turned to imaginary and repeated strategies, how can help with American strategies against Iran?
But a desirable future;

According the facts that the US decision-making systems are considering, is there a desirable future?
American historical behavior shows that they have always failed to predict their future toward Iran.
Interestingly, these failures have been the product of long and widespread American think-tank experts; these failures seem to be persistent and even worse.

Because in the past there were some reason and logic, but what would be the bigger catastrophe for the United States that to know behind the scenes, there were some statements and decisions of the MKO.
If there is an impossible assumption of a wise American attitude, it is better to change its course and begin to relocate to those who have always been with the terrorists and then review their strategic texts with more realistic literature.

October 25, 2018 0 comments

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