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Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

by Mehrdad Torabi – medium.com

September 29, 2020 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

Hope is their only weapon against Rajavi

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mazda Parsi

September 26, 2020 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization

Who Are the Offspring of the Liberation Movement of Iran?

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

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

Who Are the Offspring of the Liberation Movement of Iran

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

September 23, 2020 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

MEK Members’ Only Task: Achieve Martyrdom By Dying For Maryam Rajavi

News of the deaths of at least two MEK members from COVID-19 last week was troubling. In April, Albania was warned that the MEK’s refusal to allow public health officials to access the closed camp in Manez could put the lives of the residents and local citizens at risk. Families of MEK members have petitioned Edi Rama and his government to take steps to prevent a tragedy. Unfortunately, the state of Albania appears to be in thrall to the Rajavi cult and has failed to challenge, change or contain it. Health officials are still denied access to the MEK’s closed camp, which has no registered doctors among its residents, and deaths there are not subject to a Coroner’s report. It is hard to imagine worse conditions in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

Instead of putting the lives of her followers at the forefront of her concerns, MEK leader Maryam Rajavi gleefully claimed these newly dead as “martyrs” and heaped praise on them simply for dying. Two things are significant in this callous declaration. First, the cause of death was missing, unlike all previously announced deaths for which some explanation – true or not – has been forthcoming. Such an omission will be interpreted as an admission; these individuals really did die from COVID-19.

Second, Rajavi has found a new way to exploit the concept of ‘martyrdom’ which her husband so skilfully manipulated for years. Not only did MEK websites proclaimed the dead as martyrs, but now Rajavi heaped praise on them for dying without abandoning “the struggle”. In doing so, Rajavi has redefined what martyrdom means for the members. To achieve martyrdom now, all one has to do is to die while obedient to Rajavi.
In 1965, the MEK founders adopted the Shia culture of venerating martyrdom along with lessons learned from Marxist revolutionary struggles. The MEK celebrated its first suicide bombing on 9/11: a young MEK activist stepped forward to clasp Ayatollah Sayyid Asad Allah Madani after the Friday Prayer on September 11, 1981, exploding a bomb that killed them both. Revolutionary struggle before and after the 1979 Revolution produced its share of martyrs; mostly helped by the zealous purges of opposition to Ayatollah Khomeini’s newly formed Islamic Republic.

When Massoud Rajavi seized leadership of the MEK, the organization’s fate was sealed. The self-appointed guru instigated a programme of coercive mind control (aka brainwashing) which resulted in a membership fearfully and mindlessly obedient to his whims and demands. In re-purposing the MEK from revolutionary group to personality cult used to pursue a terrorism campaign against Iran, Rajavi very quickly realised that martyrdom was a commodity which he could bank like gold or dollars. It became known in the MEK as a blood bank – the more blood the better. For Rajavi, the ‘book of martyrs’ acted like the share prospectus of a big company, advertising its success.

And so it continued, through the disastrous Eternal Light operation of 1988 (which Rajavi exploited by attacking his followers for not believing in him enough), the deployment of suicide squads into Iran in the next decade, to putting in harm’s way various clusters of members – such as the battles over Camp Ashraf. Over the past four decades, Rajavi has accrued a rich harvest of martyrs through suicide bombings, self-immolations and swallowing cyanide capsules in the name of “the struggle” against the “mullah’s regime”. As the deaths from these tactics added to Rajavi’s blood bank, the blood bank itself garnered him political capital from other bloodthirsty warmongers. John McCain, Rudi Giuliani, John Bolton all showed willing to risk their reputations to make lucrative speeches praising and advocating the MEK based on this blood bank; ‘the MEK will get results’ they claim.

But since the MEK were deported to Albania, Maryam Rajavi has been deprived of opportunities for creating martyrs. Her claims that agents of the Iranian regime want to come to the MEK camp to kill the members have no basis in fact and are only used to frighten the members into continued submission. Instead, she has had to rely on the baseline of attrition through death which has underpinned the MEK’s membership numbers for at least two decades: that is, deaths by natural causes – old age and sickness – deaths by suicide and deaths by murder – often disguised as suicides. Whatever the causes of these deaths, their numbers are highly disproportionate in comparison with a cohort of the same demographic of population living in normal society. In other words, deaths in the MEK are not natural nor inevitable; only desirable. They add to the blood bank of martyrs.

Graves of MEK members in a public graveyard in Tirana.

These deaths, however, are not only mundane – elderly and sick people dying in bed – they are not enough. Previously, Massoud Rajavi commanded the 3800 members that in May 2003, coalition officers consolidated in Camp Ashraf, Iraq. According to a 2017 UNHCR report, a total of 2,901 individuals were relocated to Albania in the course of 2016. The Albanian police reported at the end of 2016 that “There are about 2745 MEK members in our country: 11 members have died; 80 have left our country with regular papers; 65 were illegally removed; Mojahedin who continue to be full members of MEK and follow their rules for living as members are 2621; Mojahedin dissociated from MEK are 124 people”.

We see from this that one of the biggest problems for Rajavi is not the untimely and disproportionate number of deaths among her followers, but the even greater attrition through desertion. Since arriving in Albania, the members have become disillusioned. In spite of relentless brainwashing, coercion and harsh punishments for disobedience, many members took advantage of their new location to escape the group. Currently, just over 2,000 remain. To prevent more people leaving, Rajavi created a closed, isolated camp to incarcerate the enslaved members, where cynically they are worked to death for “the cause”. Time has exhausted the once vigorous fighters who pledged to fight to overthrow the Iranian regime. The members are now old and sick and in danger of giving up. According to Rajavi, their only task now is to die in her service and be banked as martyrs. The definition of MEK martyrdom has been truly hollowed out

September 21, 2020 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

Fake Journalist, Fake freedom and fake humanitarian aid of the MEK

Another fake persona under the name of”Amir Basiri“who publishes articles on behalf of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ the Cult of Rajavi) was recently revealed by the American Conservative Magazine.

The first one had been exposed by Murtaza Hussain of the Intercept, last year. He revealed that”Heshmat Alavi“is a created persona run by trolls working inside the camp of the MEK, Ashraf 3, in the region of Durres in Albania. [1] [2]

According to both reports, the so-called articles circulated in certain western media such as Forbes and the Hill under the name of Alavi and Basiri were then boosted by a chain of accounts, many with only a few followers and which solely tweet the authors’ arguments: support for the MEK and regime change in Iran.

Paul Brian and Arthur Bloom of the American Conservative describe the MEK-run troll farm in twitter against the Iranian government as”a hall of mirrors amplifying the case for war with Iran”. They consider the MEK’s large amounts of money going to the pockets of twitter as a good reason to use the platform of this social network for warmongering propaganda and aggressive content.”The ad money from NCRI and pro-MEK accounts seems to have dampened Twitter’s desire to crack down”, they state.”A request for comment from Twitter was not returned as of press time.”[3]

Naturally, the MEK accuses the American Conservative of being the”a mouthpiece for the mullahs”. This accusation is a frequent one against anyone who challenges the MEK regulations or criticizes its behavior. Similarly, they accuse the families of their members who desire to visit their loved ones taken as hostages inside camp Ashraf 3 in Durres, a region in North of Tirana as agents of Iranian regime.

The calls of families of the MEK hostages on the Albanian authorities and human rights bodies have not been responded yet. While their humanitarian request to contact their loved ones in the MEK is totally ignored by the Albanian authorities, the mayor of Durres Emiriana Sako, in a note published in the Washington Times, praises the MEK for providing”humanitarian aid”to the local residents of Manza, Durres! She is proud of accepting the MEK cultic group”as part of their community”. [4]

Mayor of Durres officially expresses her support for what she calls”the Iranian people’s struggle for freedom and democracy”and hopes”that the residents of Ashraf 3 can return to their country very soon when freedom and democracy is restored in Iran”.

In an open letter to Maria Arena, the head of the European Parliament’s subcommittee on Human rights, former member of the MEK and the CEO of Nejat Society, Ebrahim Khodabandeh urged her”to endorse the humanitarian demands of the families and asked the Albanian government, which is responsible for this organization in its own country,”why elderly mothers and fathers after some four decades should not have contact with their children“. [5] The right to live in a free world with normal relationships with family and friends is one of the most basic rights of a human being. The MEK members are deprived of such an absolutely humanitarian right.

Western politicians and particularly the authorities of Albania should stop getting fooled by the MEK’s fake journalists, fake democratic gestures and fake humanitarian aids. The authors of the American Conservative accurately suggest,”As a matter of journalistic ethics any organization engaging in systematic dishonesty like this has provided a very good reason to blacklist them”.
Mazda Parsi

References:
[1] Brian, Paul & Bloom, Arthur, Another Opinion Columnist Pushing War with Iran Who Doesn’t Actually Exist, the American Conservative, September 5th, 2020.
[2] Hussain, Murtaza, An Iranian Activist Wrote Dozens of Articles for Right-Wing Outlets. But Is He a Real Person?, the Intercept, July 9th, 2019.
[3] Brian, Paul & Bloom, Arthur, another Opinion Columnist Pushing War with Iran Who Doesn’t Actually Exist, the American Conservative, September 5th, 2020.
[4] Sako, Emiriana, ‘Mutual respect and understanding’ in Ashraf 3, the Washington Times, August 13th, 2020.
[5] Nejat Society CEO’s letter to Ms Maria Arena MEP | Nejat Society

September 15, 2020 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

The Mek and Children – Yaser Ezati

The MEK started training him as a cult member since he was four years old.

“We used to march in front of the portraits of the so-called martyrs of the organization. We were so manipulated that I did not miss my mother at all,”

Yaser Ezati told Mehr News Agency.

Yaser Ezati

His father was a high ranking member of the MEK and his mother was killed in the MEK’s deadly military operation against Iran “Forough Javidan”. Yaser was then sent to Germany together with hundreds of children of the MEK members in 1991. From there, he was transferred to Canada. He lived a challenging life with a number of MEK sympathizers in Germany and Canada.

In just one of his traumatic life experiences with MEK sympathizers, he recalls Forough, the mother of Neda Hassani – the 17-year-old girl that set herself on fire to protest the arrest of Maryam Rajavi by the French Police in June 2003. Yaser lived in Forough’s house in Canada for a period of time. He writes of Forough’s aggressive behavior against him:

“One morning in the winter, I missed the school bus. I got back home to tell Forough that I would take the next bus to school. All of a sudden, she stood up and grabbed me by collar and pulled me on the flour toward the garage where she started beating me. She kicked and bit me so awfully that I was not able to stand on my feet. At the time I was thirteen years old and Forough used to attack me at the slightest pretext.”

Yaser was returned to Camp Ashraf, Iraq a few years later in order to receive systematic organizational and military training. “The MEK forced me to stay in Iraq for seven years, I was kept in solitary confinement for fourteen months before I could leave the group,” he told MNA.

When he first asked to leave the group, they showed him a testament allegedly written by his mother in which it was written: “You should take a gun and follow my path”.

“Whenever I missed my family, may father would kick me in response”, he recounts.

September 9, 2020 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

MKO terrorist leader threatens Albanian journalists

When Western countries are harboring ‘useful’ terrorist groups, they generally want them to be low profile, but the US is the exception

Albanian journo challenges MKO ringleader to open debate, vows to keep exposing terrorists

[Editor’s Note: These two Albanian journalists writing about MKO, when it is under the full protection of the US and NATO, is a ballsy thing to do. They could be VT guys covering and saying what no one else will. We salute Olsi Jazexhi and Gjergji Thanasi.
When Western countries are harboring ‘useful’ terrorist groups, they generally want them to be low profile. But the US is the exception, as Trump buddy Rudy Giuliani has been a big promoter of the group.
US and Western media give them a free pass, so it was a surprise to see these two Albanians taking MKO on in a country where you can get someone killed for a very reasonable price.

I was surprised to see him claim that the MKO forces in the country outnumber the army and police. Wikipedia seems to disagree with about 6,000 regular and 5000 reserves, not counting the police.

But the bottom line here could be said that this long love affair the US has had with the MKO terror group, and never having been sanctioned for it formally or even in the media, might have led to the flood of proxy terror wars we see going on.
It reminds me of my mother, after spanking me, educating me as to why…”Give a kid an inch and they will take a mile”. That was a bit over my head at the time, but it was not a good time to argue or ask questions, or I would get a ’round two’ for being ‘sassy’… Jim W. Dean ]

Olsi Jazexhi (R) listens to a handler during a tour of a mosque in Aksu city, in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), Aug. 21, 2019

An Albanian journalist, committed to exposing the criminal activities of the anti-Iran Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) terror group, responds to the threats he has received from the group’s ringleader, Mariam Rajavi.

“I really want to have an open debate with you,” Olsi Jazexhi told Rajavi in a video posted on YouTube on Monday.

He said he had made the video after the MKO ringleader finally dared to verbalize threats against him and Gjergji Thanasi, a similarly outspoken Albanian journalist, through two of the group’s “commanders.” The terrorist top brass conveyed the threats in two articles that have appeared on MKO-related websites.

Jezexhi expressed surprise that the ringleader had chosen to target him in this fashion this time around after three years of “attacking me from behind” by pressuring him through the Albanian government and his employer.
“I’m very happy that you have come out with the face of your commanders to attack me,” he said, adding that the covert attacks had “caused so many troubles for my life, and destroyed it economically.”
‘Never to be silenced’
The journalist, however, pledged that he would not stop probing the group and revealing information about it.
“I want to tell you, Mariam Rajavi, that Albania is a democratic state, and we are a liberal democracy, where we have freedom of speech,” he said.

“We’re never going to be silenced. We’re going to investigate and expose to the international and Albanian community, the crimes and the illegal things that you’re doing in my country,” Jezexhi said.

The MKO has a squalid history of assassinations and bombings against the Iranian government and nation. It notoriously sided with Saddam Hussein during the former Iraqi dictator’s 1980-88 war on Iran.

Out of the nearly 17,000 Iranians killed in terrorist assaults since the victory of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, about 12,000 have fallen victim to the MKO’s acts of terror.

Western countries, topped by the United States, have, nevertheless, taken the group out of their terror blacklists.
Currently based in Albania, the group throws lavish conferences every year in Paris, with certain American, Western, and Saudi officials as its guests of honor. These include former US national security advisor John Bolton, US President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, and former Saudi Arabian spy chief, Prince Turki Al Faisal.

The MKO was relocated from Iraq, where it used to enjoy the US’s protection, to Albania in 2016, where it was allowed by Tirana to set up a paramilitary camp.

Jezexhi said since then, the cult’s membership has grown from some 3,000 to around 7,000, identifying himself as one of the first public speakers in Albania to ever ask his government not to bring in the terrorists.

‘Good terrorists, standing army’

Jezexhi said the group has attained the “good and useful terrorist” status because of the support it gets from the US, the NATO military alliance and Israel, as well as the money it receives from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Mossad admits cooperating with MKO over anti-Iran plot

This, he added, was because “they’re being kept as a standing army, ready to be used and deployed at any moment…whenever the United States and Israel wants them to.”

“NATO needs to use [them] in the future war that the Americans and Israel plan to wage against Iran,” the journalist said.

In Albania, the MKO now outnumber even the army and the police, the number of whose overall forces stands at some 6,000.

The MKO terrorists have told the people in Albania that they have come there “on humanitarian visas” while their status does not differ at all from those returning from fighting alongside Takfiri terrorist groups such as Daesh, al-Nusra Front, or Tahrir al-Sham against the Syrian government and people.

Jezexhi said Balkan countries like Albania are mandated to prosecute those who used to engage in fighting abroad after their return, and have jailed and charged hundreds of the Takfiri returnees as a result of the imperative.

“However, in the case of Albania and since the United States is at war with Iran and Israel as well [is at war with Iran], the Albania-based Mujahedin are pampered by the Americans and the Albanian government,” he noted.

By: Jim W. Dean, Managing Editor – veteranstoday

Jim W. Dean, Managing Editor
Managing Editor
Jim W. Dean is Managing Editor of Veterans Today involved in operations, development, and writing, plus an active schedule of TV and radio interviews.

September 8, 2020 0 comments

Missions of Nejat Society

Letter of the CEO of the Nejat Society echoed in the Albanian media

The Albanian newspaper Gazeta Impakt, in September 6, 2020 issue, translated and published the letter of Mr. Ebrahim Khodabandeh to Maria Arena.

In the letter, the CEO of the Nejat Society urged the Head of the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI) to endorse the legitimate demands of the families, and ask the Albanian government, which is responsible for this organization in its own country, why elderly mothers and fathers after some four decades should not have contact with their children.

Link to source:

Letter of the CEO of the Nejat Society echoed in the Albanian media

Drejtori i Përgjithshëm i shoqatës Nexhat i dërgon letër eurodeputetes Znj. Maria Arena

September 7, 2020 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Families of the MEK members should plant the seed of hope for their loved ones

Family relation is important since our mental growth, well-being, and stability all depend on our family relations. Children brought up in a healthy family will be able to establish better bonds outside their home.

Strong relationships will help us how to trust others and keep a positive attitude towards others.Family members usually share their feelings in different situations.

Destructive cults like the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi) endeavors vigorously to break family ties. The consequences of cutting links with family include a world of distrust full of feeling of insecurity.

https://dlb.nejatngo.org/Media/Interview/Giukan_1.mp4

A family makes all its members feel safe and connected to one another. It provides them with the comfort of having people by their side during tough times, helping them to manage and control the stress. A family allows its members to feel safe, protected, accepted and loved despite all shortcomings. Families are the basic units of the society that teach children about relationships. Now imagine the children who lived and grew up in a cult-like system. Children in the MEK – who are now in their thirties or forties—do not know how to build trust in others.

Family members share both good and bad times together; conflicts in family teach children a respectful way to resolve problems in the future, what the younger members of the MEK have never experienced.

https://dlb.nejatngo.org/Media/Interview/Abdollahi_Ramin_Mum.mp4

The MEK leaders block communications with the outside world, particularly families are labeled as enemies of the group, and are considered”agents of the Iranian Intelligence”and eventually the enemies of their children! However, families who are inside the MEK camp live separately. Spouses were forced to divorce. No parents are allowed to live with their kids. No sibling is allowed to socialize in the camps unless it is the New Year’s celebration.

This is part of the regulations of every destructive cult. In March 2020, Glenn Stok published his experience of releasing his sister from the notorious religious cult, Scientology in We Have Kids website. He clarifies that it is impossible to communicate with a family member because they are brainwashed to the extent that healthy communication fails.”They may also be threatened and afraid to share their feelings with other family members who want to help,”he writes.

Just like the families of the MEK hostages, Glenn Stock believed that his loved sister needed help to get out of the cult. So he waited for an opportunity to break through and take his sister out. He regrets that their father died without saying goodbye to his daughter.”I witnessed this, and it wasn’t pleasant,”he writes about the anti-family rulings of the cult.”My dad was classified as a Suppressive Person because he attempted to obstruct the progress of his daughter’s training within the cult. His attempts were met with hostility that created anxiety for him and the rest of us. He left this world with deep emotional stress over having lost his only daughter.”

This is the traumatic fate of many mothers and fathers of the MEK members. So many of them died before they could even have a short phone call with their children in the MEK. Just a few examples of the recently deceased parents are the followings: The mother of Mohammad Hamid Atabay, the father of Bizhan Dehdashtnai, the mother of Javad Abdi, the father of Mohammad Javad Nowruzi, the mother of Manour Ramhormozy.

While Stock’s sister could come for the funeral of his father, standing distant from the family, members of the MEK have never been informed about the death of their parents. Stock could finally find the”loophole”to talk to his sister at the funeral of their aunt but families of the MEK hostages have no way except writing letters to the International bodies and Albanian authorities. They even publish videos speaking to their loved ones but they know that they are isolated and will not receive their messages. Nevertheless, they do not get tired of pursuing the case of their loved ones imprisoned inside the cult of Rajavi.

However, Glenn Stock knows that some destructive cults prevent any possibility for their members and their families to communicate.”If you have a family member or a friend in Scientology, or any religious cult, and you’ve lost the ability to communicate, plant that seed and wait for the opportunity to help”, he suggests.”Do it before it’s too late, and be ready to do whatever you can when the call for help arrives.”

By Mazda Parsi

September 7, 2020 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

The danger of MEK troll farm bolstering the propaganda of their paymaster

There is at least one more foreign policy opinion writer from the Mujahideen-eKhalq (MEK) whose existence is dubious, based on a study by a social media analyst and statements from a defector from the group. Amir Basiri, who contributed to Forbes 9 times, the Washington Examiner 52 times, OpenDemocracy, Algemeiner, and The Hill once also appears to be a fabrication.

The MEK is an Iranian exile group for which John Bolton, Rudy Giuliani, and other foreign policy luminaries have given paid speeches. Dems like Joe Lieberman and Howard Dean have also spoken on their behalf. But the group has American blood on its hands, has been accused of practicing forced sterilization, and their belief system has been described as a mixture of Marxism and Islamism. Its supporters claim they, and their front group the National Council of Resistance of Iran, are a sort of government-in-exile, despite nearly nonexistent support for the group within Iran. They also have waged a substantial disinformation campaign in the Western press, in particular targeting conservative media.

“Amir Basiri and Heshmat Alavi are two fake accounts,” Hassan Heyrani, an MEK defector told TAC.

“At Camp Liberty, near the BIAP airport in Iraq, I was in the political unit of the organization with some of the persons who grew up in America and Canada. We worked as a team to write the articles analyzing the Iranian regime. The MEK put them in The Washington Post and all the newspapers in Western countries.”

Basiri’s op-eds focus on the need for regime change in Iran which he claimed is “within reach.” The thrust of Basiri’s writing – last placed at the Examiner in October of 2018 – is to encourage American readers to take an interest and sympathize with the plight of Iranian protesters and dissidents. Basiri consistently argued against the Iran nuclear deal, downplayed terrorism against Iran, called for tougher sanctions as a method of regime change and highlighted the necessity of Trump working with the Iranian opposition.

“We are currently looking into the matter, so I won’t comment on this specific byline,” Philip Klein, Executive Editor and Commentary Editor of the Washington Examiner told TAC. “But I will say that we have recently instituted more rigorous vetting of outside contributors, including but not limited to asking for photo identification if necessary. We are especially on guard when it comes to unsolicited foreign policy commentary.”

A request for comment from OpenDemocracy, a site greatly concerned about disinformation campaigns, has not been returned as of press time. Basiri’s articles on Forbes are no longer online. (Update: Julian Richards, managing editor of OpenDemocracy, writes, “This article was submitted to us through our normal process and our editor corresponded with Amir Basiri about the text. In light of the allegations you have made, we have removed the article text from our site for the time being and I have written to the email address that Amir Basiri used to ask for confirmation of his identity.”)

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

The list of MEK disinformation tactics also includes fake online since-deleted sites such as PersiaNow and ArabEye and questionable sites such as Iran Focus whose domain was formerly registered under the name of an NCRI spokesperson and is now anonymously held.

MEK’s recent influence campaign on Facebook spearheaded by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) was recently reported on last year by Lachlan Markey at the Daily Beast. Markey explained how NCRI lobbyist Soheila Aligholi Mayelzadeh has helped place paid ads on Facebook reaching between 500,000 to 1.4 million users as part of the campaign to sway US public opinion in favor of MEK and intervention in Iran.

The list of outright fakes recently in the realm of foreign policy analysis is significant: there is the apparent Emirati fabrication Raphael Badani to MEK sock puppet Alavi, first revealed by The Intercept, to deepfake non-existent anti-Palestinian activist Oliver Taylor, whose work was placed at highly-respected publications in the United States and Israel.

As Adam Rawnsley wrote for the Daily Beast, “Badani is part of a network of at least 19 fake personas that has spent the past year placing more than 90 opinion pieces in 46 different publications. The articles heaped praise on the United Arab Emirates and advocated for a tougher approach to Qatar, Turkey, Iran and its proxy groups in Iraq and Lebanon.”

Geoff Golberg is the founder of Social Forensics, which tracks and monitors online social media networks and disinformation campaigns. Golberg’s run-in and exposure of various pro-MEK personas, sock puppets and boosters came just prior to his Twitter suspension in July of 2019, the official reason for which was calling an account he believed to be fake and interfering in Canada’s elections a “moron.”

“Rather than suspending accounts that blatantly violate Twitter Rules, Dorsey instead opted to silence my voice. Specific to Iranian-focused platform manipulation, along with The Intercept, I helped out ‘Heshmat Alavi’ as a sockpuppet propaganda operation run by the MEK. Remarkably, despite initially suspending the fake account, ‘Heshmat Alavi’ has been reinstated by Twitter and continues to disseminate propaganda,” Golberg said, adding that Basiri – whose account is currently suspended by Twitter – is another fake persona which has been on his radar for some time. He produced the following graphic demonstrating the interconnectedness of the two accounts:

Golberg said he knows little of geopolitics or political aspects and was led to investigate sock puppet accounts fomenting war with Iran because he noticed many oddities about their networks, followers and tweeting patterns. His further research and analysis led him down a rabbit hole of connections and resulted in death threats, mass reporting of his account and accusations that he sympathized with the Ayatollah’s regime.
Rather than the hype over Russian bots, the real danger on platforms like Twitter is fake accounts and troll farm accounts which amplify hashtags, spread lies and bolster the desired propaganda of their paymaster, Golberg says.

“Despite media coverage that tends to focus on ‘bots,’ which simply means fully-automated accounts, Twitter’s much larger problem is actually fake accounts. There are more than 100K fake accounts that exist solely to create the illusion of widespread sentiment that the US should go to war with Iran,” Golberg told TAC, adding, “Take ‘Sheldon,’ @patrick_jane77, for example, an account that reflects having nearly 120K Followers. Very few of the account’s Followers are authentic accounts, yet given Twitter refuses to enforce their own rules, it is easy to mistake “Sheldon” for being a popular account. Twitter’s entire platform is propped up by misleading or inflated Followers/Following counts. Twitter’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, has built a house of cards and continues to commit ad fraud at a massive scale.”

MEK members run online information operations from France, Albania: Murtaza Hussain

Golberg sued Twitter earlier this year, alleging that the platform engaged in “deceptive practices” and hasn’t stood by its own terms of service.

Accusations from MEK supporter Hanif Jazayeri that The American Conservative itself and senior editor Daniel Larison act as a mouthpiece for the mullahs are part of a broader campaign aimed at maligning the reputation and integrity of anyone who opposes regime change in Iran. Tweets calling for investigations of TAC also came from noted MEK sock puppet Alavi, MEK spokesman Shahin Gobadi and NCRI’s Ali Safavi.
A barrage of accounts retweeted Jazayeri’s accusations, many with only a few followers and which solely tweet boosting the MEK and supporting regime change in Iran.

It’s worth noting that Heshmat Alavi was following Amir Basiri prior to his suspension, as were others closely connected to the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies such as Jerusalem Post Iran hawk Seth Frantzman, @sfrantzman, Jazayeri and a number of other pro-MEK shills. It is a hall of mirrors amplifying the case for war with Iran, and the ad money from NCRI and pro-MEK accounts seems to have dampened Twitter’s desire to crack down. A request for comment from Twitter was not returned as of press time.

As a matter of journalistic ethics any organization engaging in systematic dishonesty like this has provided a very good reason to blacklist them. Failing to do so will encourage other foreign interests to do the same in the future, so conservative publishers should decline all content and interviews from the MEK in the future. This is not a matter of foreign policy differences: if you wish to see the U.S. pursue regime change in Iran, the MEK does not help make that case. Any publishers or think tanks who are aware of this dishonesty and still treat them like a legitimate opposition group should be considered part of a campaign not wholly different from the last time we were lied into a Mideast war.

By Paul Brian and Arthur Bloom

Arthur Bloom is the managing editor of TAC.

Paul Brian is a freelance journalist. He has reported for the BBC, Reuters, and Foreign Policy, and contributed to The Week, The Federalist, and others. You can follow him on Twitter @paulrbrian or visit his website www.paulrbrian.com.

September 5, 2020 0 comments

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