Articles

++ The MEK’s annual celebration of the start of its armed struggle in 1981 represents the pinnacle of its yearly activity. In the lead up to the show at Villepinte on 13 June this year, the MEK is on overdrive to do what they can to make the most of this expensive event. As well as bussing in its paid audience and advertising its list of paid speakers, the cult has tried to grab peripheral publicity to prevent it being ignored. The problem is that the volume of ranting against Iran has become so loud – Israel and Saudi Arabia met recently to discuss their mutual concerns on this issue – that nobody notices the MEK. To combat this, last week Reuters news agency reported yet another MEK nuclear revelation. Unfortunately for Rajavi, everybody ignored it apart from a terse retort from the Iranian embassy in Paris which dismissed the Reuters report as suspiciously akin to playing its part in the game of trying to stop the nuclear talks. Another MEK ploy which went unremarked was the fabrication of a letter supposedly from the European Parliament purporting to have been signed by 220 MEPs. The Farsi Commentariat ridiculed this as typical MEK propaganda material with no whiff of truth or consequence. Only IRNA reported it in English. When Iran Interlink enquired of Federica Mogherini’s office about the letter they had no knowledge of it.

++ Connected to the Villepinte show is the issue of the Albanian President, Bujar Nishani. Last week Iran Interlink received information from a source close to the MEK in America that Nishani had clandestinely agreed a fee to speak at Villepinte. It was also disclosed that Maryam Rajavi’s keynote speech will focus on her demand that America re-arm the group so it can pursue regime change in Iran. Iran Interlink has previously revealed that the MEK has bought land and property in Albania, where over four hundred residents of Camp Liberty have already been transferred. This can only be interpreted as the MEK’s intention to reconstruct the cult’s militarised Iraqi bases in Europe from which to train terrorists to attack Iran or elsewhere. The President of Albania’s role will be to advertise this camp so that groups such as AQ and IS become attracted because of its position and the lack of international scrutiny. If he does appear at Villepinte, Nishani will be the only governmental representative in the world, except Saddam Hussein, to publicly give his support to the MEK in its entire history.

++ Al Bayane from Iraq conducted an extensive interview with Maryam Sanjabi in Baghdad. Sanjabi is a former member of the Leadership Council of the MEK and since her escape from the cult has been active in trying to rescue other residents trapped inside the MEK’s Iraq base. Her interview went into detail about the MEK’s role in Iraq, about the residents in Camp Liberty and their psychological and physical conditions and about the future of the MEK in Iraq.

In English:

++ After twelve years, an article by James Dorsey published in Huffington Post was the first time a prominent writer in English has said that Massoud Rajavi is dead.

++ Fars News reported “MKO Leader Maryam Rajavi in a meeting with Saudi Ambassador to Paris Mohammad Al Sheikh said that the grouplet is willing to cooperate with Riyadh to carry out its attacks against the Yemeni nation. She reiterated that whenever Saudi Arabia asks MKO for help, the grouplet will immediately provide assistance to the Al Saud regime. Rajavi and Al Sheikh have met several times in Paris so far and Rajavi has thanked the Al Saud regime for its support and financial assistance over the past years.”

 June 5, 2015

++ Several Iraqi news agencies published news that Maryam Rajavi met with the Saudi ambassador to France. According to sources at the Saudi embassy Rajavi has asked for the MEK to be used in Yemen to fight the Houthis on behalf of the Saudis and has presented the MEK’s CV from the time of Saddam to advertise her cult. [Editor’s note: The average age of MEK members is over 55.]

++ The MEK will hold its annual celebration of armed struggle on 13 June at Villepinte near Paris. Evidence is emerging as before that the MEK is compiling hired speakers and a paid audience. Each year the MEK pays hundreds of students and needy people to travel to Paris where they can enjoy a cheap weekend break on condition they spend two or three hours at the rally clapping and waving flags. The Villepinte show will also act to launch the book by long term MEK lobbyist Struan Stevenson. The book is an attempt to whitewash his support for the MEK by spinning it as a humanitarian gesture. While the MEK prepares in Villepinte to pretend it is a peaceful, democratic opposition, the MEK’s Farsi websites and media are on overdrive in support of ISIS in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, referring to these vicious, lawless killers as “tribal leaders”. In its papers, the MEK viciously attacks the government of Iraq for re-taking Ramadi.

++ After MEK operative Mehran Kakavand attacked Mansour Nazari in Paris last week, many commentators said they recognised him from photographs and knew him personally inside the MEK. Such witnesses explained that Kakavand had undergone specialist training with Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard to learn to kill people with his bare hands. In this respect they point out that he failed in his mission this time because of public scrutiny (French police were at the picket). Complaints were addressed to the French government asking why Saddam-trained killers are operating there.

++ The Investigative judge in the case of the MEK and Mehdi Abrishamchi added a new claim of violent activity, defamation and intimidation of witnesses to the charges. This new case was brought by Mohammad Karami who presented his evidence to the judge. In the previous week a similar, evidenced case brought by Ghorban Ali Hossein Nejad was added when he showed defamatory leaflets to the judge and described MEK threats to kill him if he gave evidence.

++ This week marks the anniversary of 4th Khordad – when the founders of the MEK were executed by the Shah. Farsi sites published articles with two distinct views. One view is that the current MEK and Rajavi have no connection to the original aims and ideals of the MEK. Another view is that because it was founded with the belief of pursuing political aims through violence, it has ended up exactly where it always would have regardless, with MOSSAD and ISIS and etc.

++ On the nuclear issue – some commentators ask why the National Council of Resistance of Iran has a website with six or seven languages but nothing in Farsi. What relevance does the NCRI have to Iranians in that case?

In English:

++ Anne Khodabandeh of Iran Interlink attended the FECRIS Conference in Marseille as a representative of a UK charity, The Family Survival Trust. She reported a highly successful Conference to which she contributed by briefing Serge Blisko, head of Miviludes, on the possibility of analysing and confronting terrorism without falling into the false debate about religion.

(FECRIS is the Europe wide Federation of Centres of Research and Information on Cults and Sects. FECRIS operates at an international level with representation at the UN.)

++ Mazda Parsi of Nejat Bloggers says ‘Mrs Rajavi, Your Propaganda Just Doesn’t Work Well’. The article uses an article by Eldar Mamedov of the European Parliament to pick apart the MEK’s failed attempt to interfere with parliamentary business through undue influence.

++ Iran Interlink gave an analysis of what might be behind the publication of a book by long term MEK lobbyist Struan Stevenson. From the pre-sales blurb, the book, titled ‘Self-Sacrifice’ appears to be Stevenson’s attempt to re-frame his support for the MEK as a humanitarian gesture in spite of being, by his own admission, being warned off by the UK government and MI5. Iran Interlink suggested the MEK’s motive behind publication of this book is that it provides (perhaps unbeknown to Stevenson) fabricated ‘ammunition’ for its regime change agenda which it can use to attack Iran.

++The MEK have maintained absolute silence about Mehdi Abrishamchi’s appearance in the Court of First Instance at the Palais de Justice in Paris. Instead the sites are full of news about Syria, Iraq and everywhere else under the sun. The Commentariat points out that usually if somebody sneezes the MEK will take advantage of it for publicity purposes, but they haven’t even acknowledged that the court case exists. So, they are doubly angry about the picket by former MEK members outside the court in support of the prosecution. MEK defamation and intimidation attacks against ex members have specifically targeted those offering testimony to the investigative judge. One of these is Mansour Nazari who was physically attacked and injured in his neck. His attackers were commanded by notorious lumpen Mehran Kakavand whose role is to perform such jobs for the MEK. The Police are now involved and the Investigative judge has added the case of distribution of defamatory leaflets around the homes of ex members to the file against Mehdi Abrishamchi. So the MEK have stupidly made it worse for him. Several articles state that Iranian people are lucky the MEK has no power. But they also question the role of the French government, asking is it a victim of the cult or a perpetrator of the problem.

++ Iraj Mesdaghi, an internal critic of the MEK held interviews with Said Bahbahani of Mihan TV. Asked for his views of Rajavi’s shows and publicity stunts, Mesdaghi provides an in depth history of this phenomenon. He explains that as the MEK has lost in real terms – their leader is a fugitive, Maryam Rajavi’s so-called Presidency has not changed for years, they lost their army and more – the MEK has consequently increased the focus on its presentation. Mesdaghi points to the MEK wearing suits and ties, the men dying their hair and posing as important people. This, he says, is simply a sign of their defeat.

In English

++ Retired Colonel Patrick Lang of the US Army writes about ‘The MeK – Washington’s Favourite Communist Terrorist Cult’ in the blog Sic Semper Tyrannis. Lang describes the cult nature of the MEK, calling on the RAND report which he urges everyone to read in full in order to really understand the MEK, and the Human Rights Watch report ‘No Exit’, which also gives a clear understanding of the cult nature of the group. He concludes humorously saying “Given the choice between joining the MeK or the North Korean Army, to me it’d really be a toss up.”

++ Mazda Parsi writing for Nejat Bloggers says ““Human Rights” a tool for Mojahedin Khalq (Rajavi cult) to trap EP members”. “Obsessed with the idea of regime change in Iran, the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ Rajavi’s Cult) have always resorted to any tool. Today, as the final nuclear deal between Iran and the West is highly expected, the MKO cult is trying to sell its regime change agenda in the European Parliament running propaganda about the alleged human rights abuses committed by the Iranian government. The MKO propaganda arm spends huge amounts of money and energy to organize hearing sessions in the US Congress or EU parliament. One of the recent events was the controversial hearing at the US Congress in which the so-called president of the MKO testified about the threat of ISIS in Iraq!”

++ Eldar Mamedov published in Lobelog notes the MEK’s failed attempts to coerce members of the European Parliament into taking a position which would derail the nuclear negotiations. “In 2010, when Iran´s then-minister of foreign affairs Manouchehr Mottaki visited the European Parliament in Brussels, he was greeted by protests from MPs. Some of them, known for their close links with the exiled Iranian dissident group Mojaheddeen-e Khalk (MEK), carried the picture of Neda Soltan, a young Iranian woman killed during the protests following the fraudulent presidential elections of 2009. They also tried to block the minister from entering the meeting room and even briefly scuffled with security guards.

The contrast with a visit of a delegation from the Iranian Majles to Brussels on May 6-7 could not be greater. Sure enough, the MEK tried to derail the visit by lobbying the MPs to adopt a resolution on capital punishment in Iran, which would have almost certainly led to the cancellation of the visit. When that plan failed, they called on Euro MPs to boycott the delegation.

In the end, however, the five member-strong delegation led by the leader of the “principa list” faction of the Majles Kazem Jalali did make it to Brussels, in the first such parliamentary visit in seven years. Apart from holding sessions with their counterparts from the EP delegation for relations with Iran, Majles members were received by the President of the EP Martin Schultz (a German Social Democrat) and the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee Elmar Brok (a German Christian Democrat).”

++ Nejat Bloggers also reports on the repatriation of one former MEK member from Albania: “Mansour Shaabani returned his hometown after 27 years of imprisonment in the camps of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization. Shaabani was relocated in Albania two years ago. Finally he succeeded to get back to Iran by the help Iranian officials on May 10th, 2015. Mansour’s brother had several times gone to Camp Ashraf, Iraq, to visit him but he was never allowed by the cult leaders. Nejat Society, Gilan office aided Shaabani family to receive their beloved Mansour.”

 May 22, 2015

++ The MEK’s reaction to critics who picketed in support of the prosecution of MEK lieutenant Mehdi Abrishamchi on terrorism charges was to launch (yet another) intimidation campaign. MEK agents found the critics’ addresses and posted defamatory leaflets around their neighbourhoods. One perpetrator was arrested by police. He was identified as an illegal Afghan. He admitted being paid by the MEK along with several other Afghans to undertake this kind of activity. Former MEK member Mohammad Karami who was there during the arrest told the man “if you go back to the MEK, tell them if we were going to cave in at these things we wouldn’t have survived what you put us through in Iraq. The Afghan had photographed some of the critics and Karami encouraged him to take them back to the MEK and publish them as it would act as publicity against themselves. Other commentators reminded us that France is responsible for the safety of people in France not the MEK. They warned that some terrorist activity by the MEK is not far off; they will do it, and the host country government will be responsible. Former MEK members in Albania issued a statement supporting the court case against Abrishamchi and cheering on the critics and ex members in Europe.

++ This week in Baghdad, Massoud Meshkinian managed to run away from Camp Liberty and take refuge with the Iraqi authorities. His family had been in Baghdad the week before looking for him. Meshkinian reported that he was being forced by the MEK to appear on their TV to swear at his own family, but while they were trying to convince him he found an opportunity to run away to the Iraqis.

++ The Hajari family (2 brothers 1 sister and the mother) among others have strongly criticised the UN asking why they don’t open the gate of Camp Liberty to see if their relatives are alive or dead after all these decades. They say, “We will not give in to the backers of the MEK, in particular the Western intelligence services which want to keep the cult, and we will continue trying to get contact for as long as it takes.”

++ Several letters, mostly from inside Iran, were written about Maryam Rajavi’s Congress appearance saying that the Israeli lobby have made a disaster for themselves. This has exposed how corrupt they are.

++ Saber from Tabriz sent an article to Iran Interlink titled ‘Trusting Americans to this extent is not wise’. Directed at Massoud Rajavi, Saber examines the relations which the US secret services have had with Al Qaida, Libyan fighters, Saddam Hussein and others. He identifies different levels from foot soldier terrorists to head of state terrorists, all of whom the US used, then killed. He advises Rajavi not to be fooled. He will be next.

++ The President of Iraq, Fuad Masum, is visiting Iran. In meetings with top level Iranian leaders Masum said that work with Iran against ISIS is progressing well and will continue with military and intelligence cooperation to finish them off soon. He reported that the second-in-command of ISIS was killed in Mosul by an Iraqi aerial attack. Iran and Iraq agreed to remove visas between their countries. Responding to this visit, some of the Commentariat mention that it’s time for the Americans to take the MEK home. “Pack up the MEK along with ISIS and your other terrorists, leave the region and go home.”

In English:

++ Nick Hankoff writes in Voice of Liberty ‘Not The Onion: Tom Cotton Befriends Radical Marxist Muslim Cult’. The article exposes US Senator Tom Cotton’s efforts to prevent a negotiated nuclear agreement with Iran by allying himself with the MEK cult. Hankoff suggests: “It’s possible Tom Cotton is (willfully?) ignorant to the leftist, tyrannical values and aspirations of the MEK. But like Howard Dean, Rick Perry, Rudy Giuliani, and many other politicians, there are big opportunities to work together for mutual political growth and enrichment.”

++ Justin Raimondo in Antiwar.com ‘Follow the Money, Why Argentina is in the War Party’s sights’, analyses the MEK’s anti-Iran activities: “Over the years, MEK has carried out a persistent campaign to foment a similar US invasion of Iran, their mainstay being various attempts to document Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program. Virtually all of these attempts have been debunked as either outright forgeries or else half-truths based on outdated and dubiously sourced information… Now they have tried a different tack: accusing Tehran of sponsoring an international terrorist conspiracy, one tentacle of which is the alleged 1994 plot to bomb a Jewish community center in Argentina.” Raimondo acknowledges that the MEK’s advocates, “the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the Israel Project, and the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the powerful pro-Israel lobbying group)… have no lack of means to publicize these theories: the campaign to tar Iran with the “terrorist” brush is fueled by the multi-millions of billionaires like Singer, Sheldon Adelson, and Norman Braman, whose insistence on 100 percent loyalty to Israel in the candidates and causes they support is remaking the political discourse in the US when it comes to foreign policy.”

Raimondo calls for “a mass mobilization by the American people against the drive to war – and, no, that’s not a pipedream. We did it when President Obama decided he wanted to bomb Syria and then gave Congress the last word. Congressional switchboards were soon inundated with calls opposing a new war one-hundred-to-one.”

++ Eldar Mamedov, an official in the European Parliament, writes: ‘MEK in the European Parliament

The Well-Funded Exile Group’s Desperate Attempts to Sabotage Diplomacy on Iran’. Among opponents of a negotiated settlement of the nuclear talks Mamedov says “The cult-like organization has spent vast sums of money to lobby political elites on both sides of the Atlantic for recognition as an alternative to the current Iranian government. Since a negotiated, multilateral deal with Iran would effectively bury prospects of Western-led regime change in Iran, the MEK is attempting to leverage its extraordinary influence to sink talks. Regime change in Iran, by any means, is the only item on the MEK agenda. Like experienced salesmen, its members employ different tactics to “sell” this approach to various audiences.” The article identifies the different tactics used by the MEK in America and Europe where the MEK have cleverly exploited MEPs sensitivities by targeting the issue of human rights. The author acknowledges this is an important issue but concludes “there are more effective ways to address these crucial issues than calling for regime change, undermining nuclear negotiations, or following the agendas of those with obvious ulterior motives.”

++ Sahar Family Foundation in Baghdad reveals ‘Rajavi preparing to battle the families: Killing two birds with one stone’. The article reports news from inside Camp Liberty that residents have been tasked to make and store Molotov cocktails. According to Sahar, residents “have been briefed that there is a danger that Iranian forces will attack the base under the cover of the families of the residents. Therefore they must be ready to defend themselves. Thus the members of the MKO have been mentally prepared to violently oppose the families.” Massoud Rajavi became alarmed when several families arrived at the camp looking for their loved ones. The article concludes: “Massoud Rajavi, like all cult leaders, considers the presence of the families outside the camp as a threat to his cult and like all dictators is against any information reaching the followers.

There is also another fact that some considerable numbers of members are old or sick or discontented and are not of any use to the cult. If they are dismissed or they defect in large numbers there would be a political damage to the organization. Therefore the best option for Rajavi is to get them killed as he planned in the past in the Ashraf Garrison in order to use them for propaganda purposes. In this way he would be able to kill two birds with one stone.

Rajavi is preparing his forces and arming them with Molotov Cocktails to wage battle against the Iraqis. He is using the excuse of the families’ presence at the camp gates in order for those who he considers no longer have any use for him to be killed.”

May 15 2015