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Guess who credits the Mossad with producing the ‘laptop documents?’

Evidence mounts pointing to the Mossad as the source of dubious claims about Iran’s uranium enrichment program contained in the ‘laptop documents’

In the United States and Europe, it is unchallenged in political and media circles that intelligence documents purporting to be from a covert Iranian nuclear weapons program for which the IAEA long demanded an Iranian explanation are genuine.

Photo: Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Minister Rafi Eitan (2nd L), who was a member of the Mossad team that captured Adolf Eichmann in Argentina in 1960, look at objects displayed at an exhibition at the Knesset in Jerusalem on 12 December, 2011(AFP)

But evidence has continued to accumulate that the documents – sometimes called the “laptop documents” because they were said to have been on a laptop computer belonging to one of the participants in the program – were fabricated by Israel’s foreign intelligence agency (Mossad). We now know that the documents did not come from an Iranian participant in the alleged project, as the media were led to believe for years; they were turned over to German intelligence by the anti-regime Iranian terrorist organisation, Mujahedeen E Khalq, (MEK). I first reported this in 2008 and have now confirmed from an authoritative German source in my book on the Iran nuclear issue. The MEK was well known to have been a client of the Mossad, serving to launder Israeli intelligence claims that the Israelis did not want attributed to themselves.

Although it has never been mentioned in news media, former International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General, Mohamed El Baradei recalled in his memoirs that he was doubtful of the authenticity of the documents. “No one knew if any of this was real,” he wrote in reference to the laptop documents. Another former senior IAEA official told me, “It just really didn’t add up. It made more sense that this information originated in another country.” And as I have detailed in articles and in my book, key documents in the collection bear clear indications of fabrication.

Support for that virtually unknown part of the Iran nuclear story has come from a surprising source: a popular Israeli account, celebrating the successes of the Mossad’s covert operations. “Mossad: The Greatest Missions of the Israeli Secret Service,” first published in Hebrew in 2010, and then published in English in 2012, was Israel’s best-selling book for months in 2010. But not only does it acknowledge that it was indeed the MEK that delivered the documents, it also suggests that at least some of the documents came from the Mossad.

The co-authors of the book are far from critics of Israel’s policy toward Iran; One of the co-authors, Michael Bar-Zohar, is a well-connected former member of the Israeli Knesset and former paratrooper, who had previously written an authorised biography of Shimon Peres, as well as the biography of Isser Harel, the Mossad chief who presided over the kidnapping of Adolph Eichmann in Argentina.

Much of what Bar-Zohar chronicled in the book had already been reported earlier by Israeli journalists – especially Ronen Bergman of the daily Yedioth Ahronoth. In fact, Bergman accused Bar-Zohar of plagiarising his articles for much of the book, while changing only a few words.

But one thing that Bar-Zohar and co-author Nisham Mishal did not get from other Israeli journalists, was the role of the Mossad in regard to the laptop documents.

Although they do not flatly state that the Mossad was the source of the documents, they certainly lead the reader to that conclusion. They begin by establishing the fact that the MEK was fronting for the Mossad in its revelation in August 2002 of Iran’s first enrichment facility at Natanz. The CIA, they write, “appeared to believe that the Mossad and the British MI6 were feeding MEK intelligence they had obtained, using the Iranian opposition as a hopefully credible source”. And they explicitly confirm CIA’s suspicions. “According to Israeli sources,” they write, “It was, in fact, a watchful Mossad officer who had discovered the mammoth centrifuge installation at Natanz.”

Other sources, including Seymour Hersh and Connie Bruck have reported that the MEK got the intelligence on Natanz from the Israelis, but theirs is the first explicit acknowledgement attributed to an Israeli source that the MEK had revealed Natanz on the basis of Mossad intelligence. What the Israeli co-authors do not say is that the Mossad was simply guessing at the purpose of Natanz, which the MEK mistakenly called a “fuel fabrication” facility, rather than a centrifuge enrichment facility.

Turning to the laptop documents, they make it clear that western intelligence had indeed obtained the documents from the MEK and suggest that the MEK got them from somewhere else. “The dissidents wouldn’t say how they had gotten hold of the laptop,” they write. They again frame the question of the origins of those documents in terms of CIA suspicions. “[T]he skeptical Americans suspected that the documents had been only recently scanned into the computer,” they write. “They accused the Mossad of having slipped in some information obtained from our own sources – and passing it to the MEK leaders for delivery to the West."

Bar-Zohar and Mishal steer clear of any suggestion that the Mossad fabricated any documents, but their account leaves little doubt that they are convinced that the Mossad should be credited for the appearance of the documents. Their approach of referring to US suspicions, rather than stating it directly, appears to be a way of avoiding problems with Israeli military censors, who often clamp down on local reporting on sensitive issues while allowing references to foreign reports.

The authors further suggest that the Mossad was behind information later released by the MEK on Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the Iranian physics professor said to be shown in the laptop documents as the man in charge of that purported Iranian nuclear weapons research program. The MEK disclosed such personal details as Fakhrizadeh’s passport number and his home telephone number. But the Mossad chroniclers write: “This abundance of detail and means of transmission leads one to believe that, again, “a certain secret service” ever suspected by the West of pursuing its own agenda, painstakingly collected these facts and figures about the Iranian scientists and passed them to the Iranian resistance.”

I asked Bar-Zohar’s research assistant, Nilly Ovnat, whether he had Israeli sources for those statements relating to the MEK and the laptop documents. She responded by e-mail: “Professor Bar Zohar had other sources for most of the material concerning MEK and Natanz [and the] laptop, yet they could not be mentioned and cannot be discussed.”

Bar-Zohar and Mishal are little concerned with whether the Mossad’s laptop caper involved fraud or not. They obviously view the Israeli intelligence agency’s use of an Iranian exile group to get out documents that had been central to the international sanctions regime against Iran as a great triumph. But whatever their reasons, their book adds another layer to the growing body of evidence showing that the Bush administration and its allies hoodwinked the rest of the world with those documents.

– Gareth Porter is an independent investigative journalist and historian writing on US national security policy. His latest book, “Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare,” was published in February 2014.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

December 20, 2014 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

MKO along the lines of Western hardliners

As the co-leader of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization, Maryam Rajavi, calls on the West for more sanctions against Iran, her leading sponsor in the US Congress is demanding new sanctions to pressure Iranian government. The US-MEK campaign is paired with Israeli propaganda against Iran.

Immediately after a seven-month extension in talks between P5+1 was announced, Maryam Rajavi started to blame the West for not being firm on Iran. According to Rajavi “Exercising firmness and tightening the sanctions” is the only option to deal with Islamic Republic that should be followed with supporting the MKO as the alternative for the Iranian regime.

On the other side of the world, Rajavi’s paid advocates also launched their own campaign to obstruct nuclear talks. Even before the ink dried on the extension agreement in Vienna, skeptics in Washington were demanding new sanctions to pressure Iran`s rulers, reported Reuters. [1]

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, long regarded as one of the most effective lobbying groups in Washington, called on Congress to take up sanctions legislation.[] Members of AIPAC are mostly found among advocates of the MKO in the US government. You can find certain names on both lists of recipients of the MKO and AIPAC contributions such as Robert Menendez, Lindsey Graham and Carl Levin. [http://maplight.org/us-congress/interest/J5100/view/all]

Senator Robert Menendez, Senator Lindsey Graham and Senator Carl Levin are three of the long list of the MKO supporters who receive large amounts of speaking fees to speak on behalf of the group. They are paid for their luxurious trips to attend the MKO’s rallies around the world. News and videos of their advocacy for “the cult of Rajavi” are available on the group’s websites.

Reuters reported that Sen. Robert Menendez, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from Obama’s Democratic Party stopped short of calling for new sanctions immediately, but said: "The cycle of negotiations, followed by an extension, coupled with sanctions relief for Iran has not succeeded.” [2]

Opponents of the Iranian government including the MKO and American-Israeli warmongers disrespect the fact that the alleged Iranian nuclear program was basically a forged story made by Israeli Intelligence service and published by the MKO propaganda arm. The investigative journalist Gareth Porter studied the case and included that the key “evidence” of an Iranian nuclear weapons program came via the MKO cult and was produced by Israel. [3]

Porter suggests, “The MEK role in transferring the documents indicates that they originated in Israel, because the MEK had been serving as a client of Israel for several years, including the “laundering” of Israeli intelligence reports by presenting them to the IAEA and the press as coming from the MEK itself.” [4]

Moreover, in November 2007, National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) of the US reported that Iran had “halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003.” [5] However, Iran never had a weapons program—at least not one that has been confirmed by U.S. Thus that the unproven MKO-Israeli, nuclear weapons claim has become the source of all deceptive propaganda of the group.

While the MKO leader makes efforts to show off her cult of personality as a secular democratic alternative for Islamic Republic, critics found out the opposite. Holly Dagres of the Huffington Post refers to Rand report to prove dishonest of Maryam Rajavi and her supporters,” Despite denials, its [the MKO’s] conduct tells otherwise as cited by a RAND report: deceptive recruitment, emotional isolation, extreme degrading peer pressure, forced labor, imprisonment, lack of exit options, sexual control, sleep deprivation, and physical abuse.” [6]

Dagres remarks that the MKO has no public support inside Iran and despite its claims its slogans never reflect the aspirations of the Iranian nation. He writes,” Not only has the Mojahedin-e Khalq lost its support because of its alliance with Saddam during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s–an insult to the Iranian people’s nationalism–but also for its position against Iran’s nuclear program, something the average Iranian sees as their legitimate right.” [7]

Maryam Rajavi and her sponsors must understand that their determination to obstruct nuclear talks and engagement with Iran is not in line with the Iranian people’s longing for independence and security.

Mazda Parsi

References:

[1] Reuters, Domestic pressures in U.S., Iran threaten slow-moving nuclear talks, Nov 25, 2014

[2] ibid

[3] Porter, Gareth, How US Policy on Iran Came to Be Based on Fabricated Documents, the Nation, June 9, 2014

[4] ibid

[5] Key Judgments From a National Intelligence Estimate on Iran’s Nuclear Activity, the New York Times

December 4, 2007

[6] Dagres, Holly, Dear Washington: Kick Out This Iranian Militant Cult, Huffington Post, December 14 2014

[7] ibid

December 18, 2014 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Wrong prism to view Iran

During the last two years a number of opinion pieces have appeared in The Hill against Iran. These articles serve the interests and are written by the members and affiliates of a terrorist group known as the Mujahedeen-Khalq Organization (MEK). This group goes by various other names such as PMOI and NCRI and has an elaborate set of front groups and astroturf operations designed to allow them to operate in the U.S. while they were designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. Department of State and to create the illusion that they are part of some larger network of groups who are loyal to them.

These articles contain too many falsehoods and fabrications to address in one response, however, they are aimed at tarnishing the image of Iran and attacking the ongoing efforts to reach a final status agreement regarding the nuclear issue. The prospect of peaceful diplomatic conflict resolution frustrates those like the MEK who thrive on global volatility and need conflict in order to convince countries and interests to consider them needed and look past who they are. These articles also seek to create the impression that they are popular inside Iran. Many have refuted this and the State Department called them a “repressive cult despised by most Iranians and Iraqis.”

This group’s decades’ long history of terrorism against Iranian civilians is well documented by many including government institutions like the State Department and media outlets around the world. This group conspired with Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War even as Saddam was using Chemical weapons against Iranians and Kurds. They then became Saddam’s private militia and participated in the brutal suppression of the Kurds in the early1990s.

When the Washington Times recently wrote an article on them, the experts that the Times approached were unwilling to speak on the record. One told them that “it was unthinkable to speak openly against the NCRI because doing so would result in ‘death threats from this group.’”

Additionally, human rights groups have catalogues their cultic totalitarian disposition noting practices such as mandatory divorce so members can dedicate more time to the cause and their vast extrajudicial compound prison system.

This group only recently managed to have themselves removed from the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations after a multi-million dollar lobbying campaign, which the Rand Corporation characterized as “cultic practices” and “deceptive recruitment”; an effort that they continue today in The Hill. We understand that positions expressed in opinion articles published by The Hill do not necessarily represent those of the publishers, but we are confounded as to why your publication would make its coveted platform so routinely available to the propaganda of a terrorist cult or its bought off the rack series of front groups and shills.

The concept that this group would be capable of some sort of positive contribution to Iran’s future or U.S. policy towards Iran is greatly offensive to the Iranian people and the group’s many victims and their families.

Hamid Babaei,

Babaei is counselor and head of the Press Office for the Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the UN.

December 15, 2014 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Dear Washington: Kick Out This Iranian Militant Cult

In the war of words on Iran’s domestic issues and controversial nuclear program, the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) always is front and center to condemn the country. The MEK is known by many monikers: the People’s Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI), Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), but is best known by the multifaceted National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). Through social media, the group spams most Iran-related hashtags with their propaganda, bankroll prominent U.S. officials to advocate on their behalf as the “democratic alternative” to the Islamic Republic of Iran, and even re-opened an office a block from the White House where they hired former Senator Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.) as their legal representative.

None of these points would be problematic if it weren’t for the fact that the European Union and United States formerly designated the Iraq-based MEK as a terrorist organization for its past activities. What makes this realization peculiar is the very people in Congress that cozy up to the group’s leader, Maryam Rajavi, by calling for staunch sanctions–sometimes even war–on Iran due to its nuclear program and particularly human rights violations, seem to turn a blind eye to the activities of the totalitarian cult of Marxist-Islamist Iranian dissidents we know today as the MEK.

The amount of misinformation circulated by their public relations is disturbing and it’s time to expose their true nature.

Not A Champion of Iranian Women

To this day, the followers of the Mojahedin-e Khalq and its apologists dismiss it is a cult and continue to refer to their group as a “deeply democratic organization whose guiding principle on all issues is referendum and discussion until a consensus is reached.” Despite denials, its conduct tells otherwise as cited by a RAND report: deceptive recruitment, emotional isolation, extreme degrading peer pressure, forced labor, imprisonment, lack of exit options, sexual control, sleep deprivation, and physical abuse.

Maryam Rajavi’s marriage to one of the original founders of the MEK symbolized the transformation from an organization to a “cult of personality.” With the money provided by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein–they formed an alliance due to a deep disdain for the Iranian regime–to “construct self-sufficient camps” which included: medical clinics, prisons (also known as “reeducation centers”), schools, and training centers, in order for the population not to engage with outside society. Additionally, prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, members of the Mojahedin carried cyanide tablets around their neck to avoid capture. Self-immolation and suicide reportedly are a popular form of political protest amongst members.

With knowledge of this publically available, it is difficult to take them serious. But what is truly an affront to women is when Rajavi and her supporters claim they offer a better alternative to the current women’s rights situation in in Iran.

In a recent op-ed for The Hill, Soona Samsami a representative of the NCRI expresses:

“Rajavi has outlined a Ten Point Plan for Future Iran, which says, ‘We believe in complete gender equality in political, social and economic arenas. We are also committed to equal participation of women in political leadership. Any form of discrimination against women will be abolished. They will enjoy the right to freely choose their clothing.’”

Even though the group promotes leadership positions for women, in order to impose “military” regulations on its members, the MEK forces them not only to move into gender-segregated compounds, but also cut ties with family and friends–both inside and outside of the commune. They even require members to divorce their spouses and to live a life of celibacy. It is presumed that love for family and significant others would be replaced with love for the Rajavis.

Last but not least, when it came to attire for women, journalist Elizabeth Rubin notes:

“Everywhere I saw women dressed exactly alike, in khaki uniforms and mud-colored head scarves, driving back and forth in white pickup trucks, staring ahead in a daze as if they were working at a factory in Maoist China.”

Iran’s women rights record is problematic, but this is not and should never be considered the alternative, even momentarily.

Listen To Iranians

While Samsami says “Young women in Iran find true inspiration in the main opposition” that is Maryam Rajavi, the group has not won an audience with the Iranian people at home in Tehran.

Not only has the Mojahedin-e Khalq lost its support because of its alliance with Saddam during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s–an insult to the Iranian people’s nationalism–but also for its position against Iran’s nuclear program, something the average Iranian sees as their legitimate right. Many Iranians convey the group is “worse than the mullahs” or along the lines of what some Iranian democracy activists claim that “if it had had the chance, [the MEK] could have become the Khmer Rouge of Iran.”

With that in mind, there is no chance the MEK could win over the Iranian people if a potential regime change took place–something various legislators in the United States need to recognize.

It’s time the MEK’s blind proponents see them for what they really are: a sham.

Holly Dagres,

December 14, 2014 0 comments

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 76

++ Today at 6pm (European Time) Ehsan Bidi will be talking live on Mardom TV, hosted by Mr Sorbi. Bidi announced this week that since he escaped Camp Liberty and came to Albania “the MEK have used all their resources, including their contacts with Western security services and their lobbyists, in order to character assassinate me and stop me getting my asylum. They have repeatedly threatened to kill me and repeatedly promised that if I shut up they will provide a monthly salary. They have even given me the names of people inside the NCRI and MEK who are getting paid just not to talk and have given me their prices. Up to this point I had nowhere to respond. When we ran away there were three of us, two died along the way and I arrived here with nothing. I now have the opportunity provided by Mardom TV to answer the MEK. I invite anyone from the MEK or NCRI, specifically Maryam or Massoud Rajavi – who have repeatedly used my misfortune to say what they liked while ironically claiming to be struggling against Iran, Iraq or Syria, when in fact it was just against me – to come to this live programme and say what evidence they have against me. I remind them that I was an MEK member for many years. Failing to come and speak only shows that they are talking rubbish and on top of that it proves what pathetic people they are that after nearly a year of using all their resources against me, they don’t even dare to come to prove their claims.”

++ Several writers responded to Maryam Rajavi’s appearance in Lisburn on the UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Writers have exposed the numerous cruelties Maryam Rajavi has been inflicting on women doing in her career. The articles point out that she is among the worst examples of abusers of women.

++ A concocted group called ‘French Muslims in Support of Camp Ashraf Residents’ has the MEK’s Jalal Ganji presenting himself as a mullah and talking about Islam. Several articles say simply that the Islam of the MEK and ISIS is not what Muslims either recognise or want. One article is by Seyed Hojjat Ismaili of Irandidban, who is a former intelligence officer of the MEK. In one of his articles exposing the MEK he says: “one of the major factors in these Muslim cults is that their leaders have an obsession about women”. Ismaili gives the examples of Al Baghdadi of ISIS, Al Zabaheri, Ali Al Shemri, and Bin Laden of Al Qaida who all married several The article then charts Massoud Rajavi’s own obsession with women and his obsession with sex. Rajavi married three times as soon as he could with one immediately after the other. He then created a Harim for himself in his Iraqi camp where he got Maryam Rajavi to procure women for him from among the MEK members.

++ Fanous Association in Germany notes one of the MEK’s propaganda TV programmes in which the MEK they have a list of “428 books written by ex-members against us”. But in the same programme they claim these books have been written by the Intelligence Service of Iran. Fanous ridicules the MEK for what it calls a gaffe: How does it add up that all these ex-members have written books yet you say they were all written by Iran’s Intelligence Service, how can you believe it yourselves?

In English:

++ Saeed Soltanpour, published in Politics of Canada, writes an open letter to Dave Barrow, Mayor of Richmond Hill, Ontario. Soltanpour complains that a booking for Richmond Green facility for the Farvardin Cultural Centre to hold its 8th Iranian Fire Festival in March 2015 has been cancelled because of interference by the Mojahedin Khalq. According to the letter, the MEK has spent fifteen years trying to take control of the Iranian community’s annual events. Soltanpour appealed to Barrow not to allow pressure by the MEK to stop the event.

++ Massoud Khodabandeh wrote an open letter to Federica Mogherini, the new EU foreign policy chief, pointing out that a group of MEPs has fallen into the MEK’s trap and that this plays directly into the hands of Iran’s hardliners. The MEPs, all working for the MEK through its Friends of a Free Iran Committee in the European Parliament, have, according to Khodabandeh, allowed Maryam Rajavi to put words into their mouths and now expect the EU to change tack to suit Rajavi’s agenda. The letter concludes, “These MEPs really need to get to grips with the fact they are being manipulated into pursuing an agenda not of their own making, which ultimately serves to worsen human rights in Iran and to help crush any indigenous opposition movements and activities. Any Iranian not associated with the MEK terrorist group – on any side of the argument – will tell them this.”

++ Mazda Parsi writes in Nejat Bloggers to critique Maryam Rajavi’s speech in Paris. Parsi says that by conflating the phrases “Iranian Resistance” with “the Iranian people”, Rajavi is trying to convince people that the MEK’s regime change and sanctions and bomb Iran policy is popular among the people of Iran. Nothing could be further from the truth as Parsi says “While Maryam Rajavi and her so-called Resistance call for more sanctions, the majority of Iranians hope that sanctions relief following the nuclear deal will improve their standards of living, and will bring concrete change on the ground. The majority of the Iranian people do not aspire for escalating tension between the West and Iran. Pushing hard for more sanctions and beating on war drums to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, are far from aiding the Iranian people’s desire for a better life.”

++ An article by Holly Dagres in The Huffington Post pleads, ‘Dear Washington: Kick Out This Iranian Militant Cult’. Dagres describes the MEK’s relentless propaganda and lobbying campaigns even though for many, many years it was on the US terrorism list. Dagres says, “The amount of misinformation circulated by their public relations is disturbing and it’s time to expose their true nature. To this day, the followers of the Mojahedin-e Khalq and its apologists dismiss it is a cult and continue to refer to their group as a “deeply democratic organization whose guiding principle on all issues is referendum and discussion until a consensus is reached.” Despite denials, its conduct tells otherwise as cited by a RAND report: deceptive recruitment, emotional isolation, extreme degrading peer pressure, forced labor, imprisonment, lack of exit options, sexual control, sleep deprivation, and physical abuse. The article concludes that lawmakers need to recognise that Iranian people regard the MEK as worse than the current religious leaders of Iran. Certainly they don’t see the MEK as an alternative.

++ An article in the New York Times introduces newly exposed footage filmed by Maziar Bahari in 2009. The film shows a violent incident during anti-government protests at that time. According to Bahari, the perpetrators were MEK agitators attempting to conduct and incite violent acts. Bahari’s analysis of this was: ““I think that moment really played into the hands of the government”. The large and completely peaceful protest that came before the violence that day, Mr. Bahari said, was far more threatening to the authorities. “That peacefulness really scared the government,” he said. The attack on the base, however, “gave an excuse to start cracking down.” Reflecting on the apparent role of the M.E.K. in transforming a peaceful protest into one marked by deadly violence, Mr. Bahari suggested that there was something of a feedback loop between the authoritarians within Iran’s Islamic Republic and their enemies. “They need each other,” he said. “A violent government needs a violent opposition in order to survive.”

December 12, 2014

December 14, 2014 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization

Iranian People or Iranian Resistance?

The MKO’s claims for solidarity with Iranian people or animosity with them?

The Mujahedin-e-Khalq is a title for followers of Maryam Rajavi. The term “Mujahedin” is an Arabic word meaning “freedom fighters”. The Mujahedin has been allegedly fighting against the late shah of Iran and consequently the Islamic Republic that was established after the 1979 revolution in Iran. They claim that they want to liberate the Iranian “People”; the Arabic term “Khalq” means “people”. But do the leaders of the MKO – the Rajavis – care for the Iranian people?

Maryam Rajavi’s speech in city hall of 2nd district of Paris for her paid supporters is remarkable because whenever she speaks of her cult-like organization as the “Iranian Resistance”, she uses the phrase “the Iranian people” too. She tries to convince her audience that the so-called Iranian Resistance represents the Iranian people but Is this claim true?

As she starts her speech she expresses her anger on the extension of the deadline for the nuclear talks with Iran. She suggest that the extension of talks gives “the regime yet more time to push global and regional peace and security to the edge of catastrophe.”

Maryam Rajavi who is all the time forecasting a regime change in Iran in near future, criticizes the West for not being firm on the Islamic Republic. She asks for full implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions imposing sanctions that prohibit export and import of a long list of items from Iran. The economic sanctions eventually increase the suffering of civilians and the level of poverty in Iran.

While Maryam Rajavi and her so-called Resistance call for more sanctions, the majority of Iranians hope that sanctions relief following the nuclear deal will improve their standards of living, and will bring concrete change on the ground.

The majority of the Iranian people do not aspire for escalating tension between the West and Iran. Pushing hard for more sanctions and beating on war drums to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, are far from aiding the Iranian people’s desire for a better life.

Maryam Rajavi claims that a policy of firmness and resolve against the IRI must include the recognition of “the Iranian people’s resistance” for regime change. She claims the Iranian people as the possessors of “the resistance” while the majority of Iranian public may have no idea of who the Mujahedin are!

Moreover, she salutes all the Iranian women who are according to her, “Waging resistance against the Mullah’s barbarity.” I, in my turn, would like to salute all women in the MKO camps who are enduring a modern slavery under the Rajavis.

Not only Rajavi abuses the controversial acid attacks against a few Iranian women to show off her own deceptive opportunist slogans, but also she manipulates her audience minds by misusing Iranian people’s gathering to mourn the death of a popular singer Morteza Pashaei. Fans of Pashaei who were holding candles and singing his songs in the streets of Iranian cities did not know that their love for their deceased favorite singer is used by the MKO leader as the support of the “Iranian People” for the “Iranian Resistance”!

Claiming solidarity with Iranian people shows the hypocrite nature of this cult like organization. The purpose in using the term “people” is to save the organization from collapse after the relocation process from camp liberty to European countries has been on the rise during the past weeks.

Mazda Parsi

December 10, 2014 0 comments

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 75

++ Two series of Camp Liberty residents were transferred to UN accommodation in Tirana, Albania in previous weeks, (118 on the first flight and 115 on the second). Massoud Rajavi tried to prevent their names being made public, and even internal critics complained this was unfair to their families. These names have now been published and are available online. During this week many people contacted Iran Interlink to ask for help in connecting with their loved ones in Albania. Many families have blogged congratulations to the Camp Liberty residents who are now free. Rajavi is still trying to delay these contacts. This week he published statement after statement in what he calls “Google wars”, under the name of the NCRI. He attacks ex members and human rights activists for ‘concocted crimes’ like being “agents of Iran’s intelligence ministry”, etc. In one page of nonsense, Rajavi accused Ebrahim Khodabandeh of Sahar Family Foundation (Iraq) of bringing the families to Iraq to “torture” the residents by coming to the camp gates. Sahar published an open letter [also in English] appealing to the Prime Minister of Iraq to give greater help to the families because Rajavi’s reaction is a strong indication there is now even greater pressure on the residents of Camp Liberty.

++ A similar campaign was launched against ex-member Mr Ehsan Bidi in Tirana as he is very vocal about the MEK’s nefarious activities in Albania. Bidi is one of those who were instrumental in ensuring the names of the recent arrivals were made available for their families. Bidi simply published Rajavi’s rant against him on his Facebook with No Comment. Other ex-members and families have written to criticise Rajavi for his attack on Bidi. Many link the attack on Ebrahim Khodabandeh and Sahar which shows Rajavi’s fear of the gate of Camp Liberty being opened, with the attack on Ehsan Bidi and the fear that the new residents will speak out against him. Rajavi’s fear has caused him to re-awaken the cult phobia for the residents – calling his critics ‘agents of the regime’. But this is ridiculed as ‘too little, too late’.

++ Three parts of a series of interviews conducted by Sahar Family Foundation with Mitra Yousefi and Batoul Soltani have been published. They talk as experts specifically about what is going on inside Massoud Rajavi’s head. The series is ongoing.

In English:

++ Mazda Parsi in Nejat Bloggers notes the fifteenth anniversary of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on November 25th. Parsi describes the abuses and violence used by Massoud and Maryam Rajavi against the women members, including: “forced marriage, forced divorce, mandatory celibacy, forced sterilization, sexual slavery and forced labor.”

Citing the testimony of Nasrin Ebrahimi, Batoul Soltani and Zahra Mir Baqeri, the article says, “Violence against women which is carried out in the MKO is covered under the guise of feminism. Women in the MKO are called “heroines” and “examples of progressive women” but in reality, they are taken as hostages in a modern slavery system.”

“The most detailed report on VAW committed in the MKO, “Comrades in Arms” was broadcast by Press TV. The documentary discloses how harshly Massoud Rajavi abuses women who were “Looking for a brighter future” so that they “ended up in Camp Ashraf, where a fate worse than death awaited them.””

++ In an interesting analytical article, Ehsan Roshanzamir, of Iranian Pen Club (Ghalam), warns that the MEK is just another ISIS. Rajavi has not learned from all his past failures, be they ideological, strategic or political, and insists on re-awakening the terrorist threats which he had pretended to put aside for pragmatic reasons for the past ten years. Roshanzamir describes Rajavi as “insane” since he is not only threatening Iran, but also America and the UN as well.

++ Press TV reports “Israel is training members of the anti-Iran terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) in Jordan along the border with Saudi Arabia in order to carry out acts of terror inside Iran and neighboring Iraq. According to sources, who declined to be named, the MKO terrorists are undergoing training on how to conduct terrorist operations in Iran and Iraq and receiving technical as well as information technology (IT) training from Israeli agents. This is the first time it is revealed that anti-Iran MKO terrorists are being trained in Jordan along the border with Saudi Arabia.”

++ Ben Allinson-Davies of Unfettered Freedom For All! [An anti-Assad website], writes two very informative analytical articles about the MEK. One is about the MEK’s cyber activities. Another is an article explaining why the Syrian opposition would be wrong to embrace the MEK.

December 05, 2014

December 6, 2014 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

Rajavi’s Cyber Army: The MEK’s Twitter Legions

When confronting the Mujahedeen/Mojahedin Khalq, or MEK, MKO, etc, a crucial aspect of it which has been repeatedly overlooked, is its online activities. While there is an abundance of information and readily available studies revealing the cultic nature of the group (which the neocons consistently ignore) and the “limited exit options” (to put it mildly) it offers the members once entering the organisation, few have stopped to point out another aspect of this bizarre organisation – maybe because the knee-jerk reaction of many expat members is to brand them an “agent of the mullahs”.

The public face of the faux-dissident group is, of course, the charismatic, beaming face of Maryam Rajavi. She is an impressive orator, conversant not only in her native Persian, but also in fluent French and English, and supremely confidant, an impressive saleswoman for any group. Her ostensible support for democracy, coupled with these factors, makes supporting her and her organisation more than tempting for many western politicians, who simply see the enemy of their enemy as an immediate friend.

Online, Mrs Rajavi would appear to be just as vibrantly abuzz with followers and interest as she tries to portray herself to be offline. She has several Twitter accounts which ceaselessly promote her statements and messages, which are posted on several different websites (just in case you didn’t see the first few million posts emphasising them) on the MEK’s official website (which is of course, mojahedin.org), on the website for the unofficial MEK political wing (the ‘National Council of Resistance’), and on her own personal website. Translations are in English, French, Farsi and Arabic.

For someone who hasn’t exactly won Hassan Rouhani’s seat yet (although her and her husband have had a damn good try), her website gives the impression that, far from leading an organisation widely hated by Iranians, she’s halfway there – a multitude of tabs are devoted to her views, works and statements, photographs of crowds of supporters bearing the images of herself and her husband appear, she is shown in videos sitting and giving statements, you name it. Her branch of the “resistance”, in reality, has more presence among the diaspora than within Iran.

It’s when you start looking at her most basic of platforms, namely her English language Twitter profile, that something first strikes you as amiss. Some tweets are clearly posted by Maryam Herself, others possibly posted by her staff. Not that there’s anything wrong with that of course.

But take a look at those retweeting her, and those who very occasionally reply; those who can reply and challenge her views without being blocked after a period of time, that is. 90% of those retweeting her are accounts with nearly identical features.

Of course, when on the internet, like-minded people, especially those who strongly support parties or causes, will naturally act in a like-minded way; changing their pictures to similar ones, using similar backgrounds and slogans, etc.

But these accounts are literally identical in almost every respect. Similar pictures, similar slogans, similar lack of any personal touch whatsoever, and all devoted to either retweeting or paraphrasing Mrs Rajavi’s every word.

Don’t believe me? Check this one, ‘royaraha’, for example. This account has no description, a bland background of flowers with the avatar of a horse, 86 followers and devotes all its time to retweeting; the vast majority of its retweets are retweeting… Other accounts, also automaton-like. Then there’s another, Nakba Nejati, with an avatar of a killed MEK member, exactly 86 followers, no description, and devotes all its time to retweeting Maryam and other like-minded accounts; many, again, also automated. Here’s another, with the bland stock image of a bird, which is exactly the same as the previous two. Here’s another… and another… and another. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands of these accounts; some bearing pictures of Maryam Rajavi in abundance, some not. Some with descriptions praising the Rajavis and the MEK/NCRI, some without, yet with avatars depicting the two, and acting in exactly the same manner.

Long story short; Maryam isn’t retweeted by hundreds of adoring fans, but by hundreds (if not thousands) of seemingly automated accounts (“bots”, to internet-savvy types) save for the occasional account which may or may not be operated by the person they claim to be – like-minded activists, neocons and right-wing types who seem to genuinely want to believe in the group, etc. It was well known that the MEK has a very limited following within Iran, but I didn’t imagine that it was so irrelevant to the Iranian political climate that even the tweets of the leaders would need propping up with more falsehood and lies.

A shot of one of the automated accounts, frantically/automatically dedicated to retweeting Maryam.

To make matters worse, many of the MEK accounts are using the names, images, and personas of MEK members killed by the Iraqi and Iranian regimes. In other words, not only has the MEK thoroughly milked them for their ‘blood and breath’ (MEK members have to swear to give their breath to Massoud Rajavi, and blood to Maryam Rajavi) during their lives, but it continues to use them to further an agenda when they’re dead, too. Avatars of many of the accounts depict dead members, with one even seemingly using a screenshot from a ‘martyrdom’ video! One was also ostensibly ‘in memory’ of a fallen activist… Only to spend all its time retweeting Maryam & frantically retweeting ‘friends’ and fellow ‘martyrs’.

Here’s yet another account…

A possible source of these various cloned accounts becomes obvious when some wider reading is done. According to Iran Interlink, former MEK fighters resettled by the MEK in Albania and other nations continued to be harassed by the group into doing its bidding, and had to once again attempt to escape them, even though they had long since left the prison camp of Ashraf (named after Rajavi’s deceased wife). They were asked to ceaselessly post online propaganda for the group, despite no longer being members:

According to Iran interlink, Several Iranian residents in Europe who have contact with their friends in Tirana are now reporting that the MKO agents are exerting huge pressure on the disaffected members, who have been moved to another building block, to sign a petition against these fifty nine people and denounce them as “agents of the regime”. The MKO agents make efforts to buy the recently defected individuals in Albania back to the cult. Except for a few who have money from their families the rest must rely either on $200 per month from the UNHCR or alternatively the MEK will give them $500 per month on condition they work on the internet (to promote the MEK) and not work against them in any way. They threaten the refugees to death if they do not cooperate with them.

Thus, it seems like yet another vile twist has been added – that the MEK forces its mistreated members, which have ostensibly been freed from its grasp, to blindly retweet and comment ceaselessly online, from countries where they should be at last living in freedom and dignity, in support of the group which held them captive for so long.

It may not surprise those familiar with the MEK at all. Its policy of renting/coercing supporters into staging public acts of fealty (to the point of instructing members to set themselves alight in the streets should their beloved leaders come to any harm) comes in a variety of forms. To ensure that Maryam Rajavi’s annual mass “all for freedom” gathering doesn’t turn out to be a sparsely-populated washout, the MEK offers to bus willing students, activists, and anyone it can cajole into coming along – by offering them a “free” holiday to Paris, with all expenses paid, on condition that they come to the gathering to make its size seem impressive. The testimony of Alina Alymkulova, a Kyrgyz student, contains an overview of their methods. Here’s an outtake:

I arrived at a bus station in Prague along with a friend, a fellow student from Kyrgyzstan. Just as the trip organizer said last night, there were eight buses waiting to take us to Paris.

Most of the “protesters” were young and obviously students like me. I met many Russians, Ukrainians, Czechs, and students from Asian countries who were all recruited via the Internet.

More than an hour later we were still at the bus station. People kept coming. It was cold and rainy, and some people began to drink alcohol to keep warm. Some others started to chant slogans: “Freedom to Iranian parrots!” and “Organizers should bring beer!”

I approached two Russian girls to see if they might have a better idea about the purpose of our trip. “To defend the rights of Iranian women,” said one of the girls. “To meet handsome Frenchmen,” said the other. “Who cares about Iranian women?“

As we can see, the MEK offers “limited exit options” not only to its own imprisoned members in Camp Liberty, but also to anyone attending its large “gathering” (drawn more from foreigners than Iranians) in the free world too.

1:16 p.m.: The buses took us to some strange place not far from Charles de Gaulle Airport. We were given papers explaining where to go and what to do. Cameras were not allowed. As we exited the bus, I resigned myself to the idea that running away was not an option — people were guarding the area.

In another instances, for demonstrations around Europe and America, the MEK has paid an array of people – from miscellaneous citizens to beggars – to go to their demonstrations and don disconcerting t-shirts showing pictures of the would-be Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu, in order to beef up the size of their demonstrations.

An African-American beggar, part of the MEK’s rented crowd at a demonstration in front of the UN headquarters in New York. When asked about why she was there, she claimed that she was offered “20 dollars and a meal”.

It isn’t just the demonstrators who are often hired to go to these events either. Speakers are paid tens of thousands of dollars to speak on behalf of the group for as little as a few minutes. The MEK’s speakers in the past have even included figures such as former New York Mayor Rudi Guliani, former house speaker Newt Gingrich, and Vermont Governor Howard Dean. In other words, neocons who see the enemy of their enemy (the Iranian regime) as a firm friend. According to CSM, their methods of hiring speakers are as follows:

“‘Your speech agent calls, and says you get $20,000 to speak for 20 minutes. They will send a private jet, you get $25,000 more when you are done, and they will send a team to brief you on what to say.’ . . . The contracts can range up to $100,000 and include several appearances.”

Such big money seems to have been crucial in the de-listing of the group as a terrorist organisation (it was backlisted in 1997) in September 2012 by Hilary Clinton, then Secretary of State.

An Iranian flag, thrown in the bin by someone at Rajavi’s “gathering”. Presumably by one of the hired “demonstrators”.

Former Pennsylvania governor Rendel, among others put under investigation for receiving money from the MEK prior to delisting, may have received up to $150,000 for around eight appearances. True to form, the bottomless pockets of the MEK were not only filled by the diaspora, but largely from of payments dished out by the then-genocidal war chest of Saddam Hussein. Israel too, has used the MEK as mercenaries, in exchange for MEK assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists. Funding has also come from the UAE and Saudi Arabia, which previously used the MEK as auxiliaries with which they hoped to carve up Iran, should the MEK’S charge of the Rajavi brigade have been successful in 1998.

In short, as long as the MEK continues to have no traction within Iran, no amount of bots will save it from the murderous irrelevance that it increasingly finds itself plunged into.

Ben Allinson-Davies, Unfettered Freedom For All!

December 4, 2014 0 comments

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

Solidarity with women residing in the MKO camps

November 25th is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women which hits its 15th anniversary this year. Violence against Women (VAW) is a grave violation of human rights but its notion has always been abused and misused by the leaders of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO).

The impact of women’s rights abuse ranges from immediate to long-term multiple physical, sexual, and mental abuses, including death. It negatively affects women’s general well-being and prevents women from fully participating in society. Violence not only has negative impacts on the victims but also on their families, the community and the country at large. As a result of these abuses, women are facing grave consequences in the MKO.

Based on the testimonies of former female members of the group, women in the MKO camps every day experience a large range of violence including forced marriage, forced divorce, mandatory celibacy, forced sterilization, sexual slavery and forced labor.

Violence against women which is carried out in the MKO is covered under the guise of feminism. Women in the MKO are called “heroines” and “examples of progressive women” but in reality, they are taken as hostages in a modern slavery system.

Despite the severe situation of women in the MKO, the group launches a huge propaganda against Islamic Republic on what it calls violence against women. Acid attacks in Isfahan, Iran gave the group a new pretext to accuse the Iranian government of violating women’s rights. Although I condemn acid attacks on my country fellow women under any circumstance, I should mention that the record of abusive cases in the MKO by its leader against the group members, particularly female members, is much more severe than the eight cases of acid attacks in Isfahan.

Nasrin Ebrahimi is a former member of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization, who fled the group in 2006. She was one of the first survivors of the Cult-like MKO who dared to reveal the corruption of the leaders of the group. She was the first person to speak of the “Ideal Summit Operation” which was a cult jargon through which a large number of female members of the group became infertile by Hysterectomy. [1]

Batoul Soltani, who was a Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) member for 20 years and was promoted to the rank of the leadership council of the terrorist organization, told Press TV that individuals in the Mojahedin-e Khalq cult should reach what the organization sees as a peak by cutting all their links with the outside world. [2]

Women in the MKO who allegedly reach the “Ideal Summit” by removing their wombs and becoming infertile were since then nominated to get raped by the leader Massoud Rajavi. Former leadership and board member of the MKO, Mrs. Zahra Mir Baqeri, confirmed that 95 women were exposed to the process of hysterectomy and being raped by order of Massoud Rajavi and Maryam Rajavi. Mir Baqeri proposes a list which includes the names of 95 of the female members of the MKO who went through hysterectomy under various pretexts and deceptive excuses. [3]

The most detailed report on VAW committed in the MKO, “Comrades in Arms” was broadcast by Press TV. The documentary discloses how harshly Massoud Rajavi abuses women who were “Looking for a brighter future” so that they “ended up in Camp Ashraf, where a fate worse than death awaited them.”[4]

Testimonies of the three women interviewed in this documentary indicates that love, marital life and having children is forbidden for everyone living in the group. Moreover, all women should think of Massoud Rajavi as their husband. Nasrin Ebrahimi tells Press TV, “Maryam Rajavi used to hold many meetings for us, very long meetings. She would hold many meetings especially for women. She said, “We women all have only one husband who is Masoud Rajavi.” She even said, “You have the most handsome and the best man in the world. So what’s wrong with you?”[5]

Vocal revealer of Rajavi’s sexual corruption Batoul Soltani describes how women were manipulated to sleep with Massoud. Although she could not believe his eyes she was one of the victims of rape by the leader. She says in the film:’ “I could never imagine that her words would be put into practice someday and I would have to sleep with Massoud. I really thought that it was merely an ideological discourse. As for Maryam Rajavi herself, I couldn’t imagine that Massoud had sexual relationship with her. I couldn’t imagine it.”[6]

Compared with acid attack against a few women–which is deplorable and not acceptable at all— and executions in Iran, cases of VAWs carried out in the community of 900 women in the MKO are very crucial. The MKO propaganda on the alleged women rights abuses in Iran is used as a cover up for the massive violation of women rights in their own small cult-like community.

Mazda Parsi

References:

[1] FNA, the Ideal Summit Mujahedin Khalq makes women unfertile, October 15, 2008

[2]Press TV, Hysterectomy, latest MKO cult strategy, Oct 21, 2008

[3]Ashraf News, Zahra Mir Baqeri: 95 women were subject to hysterectomy at Camp Ashraf, December 27, 2012

[4]Press TV, Comrades in Arms, Dec 01, 2014

[5] ibid

[6] ibid

December 1, 2014 0 comments

Massoud Rajavi

Presence of families outside camp liberty is torture for residents, says Rajavi

There are signs that Massoud Rajavi is beginning to panic about losing control of the residents of Camp Liberty. Plans made by the UN to remove these former MEK members from Iraq are accelerating, with 233 residents recently transferred to Albania despite Rajavi’s attempts to prevent the move. Shortly after this, Rajavi threatened to kill anyone who speaks publicly about what goes on inside the camp.

The announcement below, published by his site Iran Focus, is another indication that the imminent disintegration of Camp Liberty has sent Rajavi into a panic. His attempt to present genuine families, mostly elderly mothers and fathers or middle aged siblings of Camp Liberty residents, as “hired agents” (a claim easily disproved with a few checks), is not the real issue. The idea, however, that residents of the camp can be psychologically tortured by the presence of families – real or imagined – outside the camp’s perimeter is an indication of both their fragile state and Rajavi’s madness.

Following is the announcement of Massoud Rajavi through their site Iran Focus:

Iran plots to torture Camp Liberty refugees in Iraq

Iran is to send undercover agents to Camp Liberty disguised as family members of Iranian opposition movement, the People’s Mojahedin Organization (PMOI/MEK), in a smear campaign against the dissidents in Iraq, according to the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).

The regime has tasked the Nejat Association, a branch of Ministry of Intelligence and Security, to dispatch agents to the camp in Iraq, the group said based on the information obtained from inside Iran.

In October, Tehran sent several well-known regime agents, including Ebrahim Khodabandeh, to meet the regime;s ambassador in Baghdad to pave the way for the offensive against Camp Liberty residents.

Reports published on MOIS websites on November 22 revealed that Iran’s embassy in Iraq had pledged to use all its resources in its drive to make contact with ‘captive members of the Rajavi sect[..]

IranInterlink from Iran focous,

November 30, 2014 0 comments

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