Page 175 – Nejat Society

MEK terrorists and mercenary advocates

It was the day of President Trump’s long awaited meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the United Nations in New York City — Sept. 24, 2019.

Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani was there at the U.N., too, but he was talking about something else.

“I am for regime change,” Giuliani told a crowd. “Down with the tyrants in Iran. Down with the ayatollah and the mullahs and all the crooks.”

Giuliani added that he was speaking in his “individual capacity,” a line he has used to describe a near-decade of apparent advocacy on behalf of the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MeK), an Iranian dissident group alternately described as a cult, terrorists, or the world’s only fusion of Marxist-Leninist thought and Islamism.

But at a time when relations between the U.S. and Iran have worsened to the brink of war, Giuliani’s advocacy for a group that the U.S. government said last year could serve as a potential successor to the current regime in Tehran can be viewed in a new light.

The Daily Beast reported on Tuesday that Trump has asked Giuliani for advice about Iran since ordering the strike that killed Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani last week.

Throughout the Ukraine scandal for which President Trump currently faces an impeachment trial in the Senate, Giuliani spoke with the President about foreign policy and that country’s willingness to supply dirt. Most recently, Trump reportedly spoke with Giuliani immediately after the former New York City mayor returned from his December trip to Kyiv.

Giuliani’s history with MeK extends as far back as his ties to Ukraine, and has shaped much of the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York’s post-government, buck-raking career over the past decade.

The group launched a lobbying and public relations blitz in 2011, paying dozens of prominent Americans — ranging from Giuliani to Gen. Wesley Clark to former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge — to advocate for the State Department to remove MeK from its list of state-sponsored terrorist groups.

The State Department had added the group to its list of terrorist organizations in 1997, saying that it had been responsible for killing Americans in the past.

But the lobbying efforts paid off; the State Department removed MeK from the list in September 2012.

Most of the group’s high-profile mercenary advocates dropped off; Giuliani stayed on.

He has traveled to Paris for the MeK’s annual meeting multiple times since first going in 2012, and has remained a consistent advocate for the movement since.

The MeK opposed the nuclear deal concluded with Iran under the Obama administration in part because it views itself as a potential successor to the current Iranian regime; Giuliani called the agreement “catastrophic” at the time it was signed.

He appeared at another MeK event in Warsaw in February 2019, which occurred at the same time as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence hosted an international summit in the Polish capital regarding U.S. foreign policy on Iran.

It is not known if Giuliani met with Pompeo or Pence while on that trip; his presence reportedly annoyed U.S. officials managing the summit.

In July, in response to a TPM article about an event he was headlining at the MeK’s compound in Albania, Giuliani tweeted that criticism of MeK was “the false propaganda of the Iranian #RegimeOfTerror.”

Giuliani, Lieberman Attend Iran Cult Event |Talking Points Memo. The author is just ignorantly repeating the false propaganda of the Iranian #RegimeOfTerror. M.Rajavi is supported by leaders all over the world.Keep watching my tweets and dismiss #FAKE NEWS https://t.co/m7O3YBYSRa

— Rudy Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) July 13, 2019

“Utmost respect for Albania,” Giuliani was quoted as saying after the event, where he met with MeK’s leader Maryam Rajavi.

FARA filings show that Giuliani’s Sept. 24 rally in support of MeK was preceded by a meeting with lobbyists for the group on Sept. 23 and followed by a meeting with the same lobbyists on Sept. 25.

And as the potential for open conflict between the U.S. and Iran has continued to percolate, Giuliani has used the same language around Iran that he has used when speaking on behalf of his MeK backers.

The Ayatollahs’ 40 year #REGIMEOFTERROR is, and has been throughout, the biggest sponsor of terrorism in the world.

The Obama-Biden administration practiced appeasement.

The Dems want to return to appeasement. The only way to avoid war is to stand up to them.

— Rudy Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) January 8, 2020

By Josh Kovensky, talkingpointsmemo
Josh Kovensky is an investigative reporter for Talking Points Memo, based in New York. He previously worked for the Kyiv Post in Ukraine, covering politics, business, and corruption there.

January 12, 2020 0 comments

Albania

Open letter to Minister of Justice of Albania, Ms Etilda Gjonaj

Dear Madame,
We heard the news of some prisoners being pardoned on New Year’s Eve, and we hoped for justice in the light of your kindness.
Security and progress in human societies will be realized with more love and forgiveness because God loves the kind.
It takes courage to show kindness and you have shown that you have that courage. We congratulate you and your government for this courage and wish you success in serving your country and its people.
Madame Justice Secretary,
I would like to draw your attention to a case that appears to violate justice in your country, and which violates the rights of an innocent person and surely you will agree.

Last August, a friend of ours – Ehsan Bidi – was arrested and is being held in a closed camp in Mans. He has been denied access to a lawyer.
It should be noted that Ehsan Bidi has been in your country for six years already, has complied with all the rules and was given a ten-year residence permit by the government.
With his background, according to international laws and standards, he is recognised as a refugee. But unfortunately, he has been arrested and his human rights and asylum rights have been violated. He had chosen to remain in your country in the hope of finding a better and easier life because he believes he can have a good life in a law-abiding and civilized country, in line with international law, just like anyone else.
Madame Secretary, we look forward to seeing your courage in administering justice in this case. We urge you not to allow the violation of the rights of anyone who has sought refuge in your country and who has been bound by and has respected all the laws of the country since the time he arrived.
With the greatest respect
1- Mohammad Azim Mishmast
2- Hadi Sani Khani
3- Hassan Heyrani
4- Abdolrahman Mohammadian
5- Hassan Shahbaz
6- Ali Hajari
7- Ehsan Bidi
8- Gholam Mirzai
9- Malek bit Mashal
10- Moussa Damroudi
11- Gholamreza shekari
12- Parviz Heydarzade

January 12, 2020 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Trump Administration and the MEK terrorists

Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani speaks in front of portraits of deceased members of the Iranian dissident group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK),

In the wake of the US assassination of Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani, an obscure group of Iranian dissidents once classified as a terrorist organisation by the US celebrated the news.

“In Tehran, Isfahan, Qom and Qaemshahr, among numerous other cities, MEK supporters were celebrating Soleimani’s death by throwing parties and handing out pastries,” the People’s Mujahideen of Iran tweeted, with pictures of jubilant supporters.

The MEK — officially the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, or the People’s Mujahideen of Iran in English — has waged war against the Islamist regime in Iran since it seized power in 1979. Formerly based in Iraq, the group is believed to have killed thousands of Iranians in terror attacks.

In Tehran, Isfahan, Qom and Qaemshahr, among numerous other cities, MEK supporters were celebrating Soleimani’s death by throwing parties and handing out pastries.#Iranhttps://t.co/Xp7v6kDX07

— People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) January 7, 2020

But far away from the battlefields of the Middle East, the MEK has also waged a campaign for influence in glossy functions at diplomatic events in western capitals, successfully cultivating powerful allies in western governments.

Among them are current and former officials in the top echelons of the Trump administration — including those who Trump regularly turns to advice on Iran, such as personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani.

Soleimani was “directly responsible for killing some of my MEK people,” Giuliani told The Daily Beast in an interview on Monday, making no attempt to disguise his closeness to the group.

“We don’t like him very much.”

And its not just Giuliani who has longstanding ties to the MEK.

In September, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attended an event on the fringes of the United Nations assembly in New York alongside the MEK.

Hawkish national security adviser John Bolton, who departed the administration in September after reportedly pushing for Trump to launch strikes against Iran, also had links to the MEK. Bolton has attended the group’s conferences, and long served as its most powerful advocate in Washington DC.

Eli Clifton, an expert on US foreign policy at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, told Business Insider that the MEK had long advocated the assassination of Iranian regime officials.

“The MEK clearly endorses the assassination of Iranian government officials and employees. In 2012, NBC News reported that the MEK was directly involved in the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists,” Clifton wrote in an email Wednesday.

The MEK emerged in opposition to the then ruler of Iran, the Shah, in the late 1960s, inspired by a blend of Marxist ideology and Islamic theology.

When Islamist rivals seized control of the country after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the MEK fled to neighboring Iraq, where it fought against Iran alongside then-president Saddam Hussein’s forces.

Defectors have claimed that the group seeks to brainwash members — forcing them to confess to sexual fantasies in bizarre public shaming rituals and to send away their children to be brought up by others. It has been described by several ex-members as a cult.

Several thousand MEK members live in a compound in Albania, where they reportedly spend their days on social media distributing anti-Iranian propaganda.

In Paris, where the MEK’s official headquarters is located, the group holds glitzy functions as it seeks to cultivate influential western officials. It has hired Iran hawks in Washington to speak at its events, paying them large speaking fees. It was eventually de-listed as a terror group by the US in 2012 following a long lobbying campaign.

Despite the rigid control it exerts over members, it has sought to portray itself as the only viable democratic alternative to the current Iranian regime.

“When the president’s personal attorney and former national security adviser have effectively endorsed the MEK as a legitimate opposition group and a viable government exile for Iran, it certainly raises serious questions about the extent to which the MEK is influencing the administration’s Iran policy,” Clifton told Business Insider.

The group’s activities in Europe have attracted the ire of Iran, with French officials in October 2018 accusing Iranian intelligence of being behind a plot to bomb a rally held by the MEK’s political arm in Paris. The rally was attended by Giuliani and Newt Gingrich, former House speaker and Trump ally.

And with the US now taking the hardline stance towards Iran it has long advocated, it will be likely seeking to consolidate its influence in Washington DC.

Tom Porter, Business Insider

January 11, 2020 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

If Soleimani is a ‘terrorist’, when will the US de-list ISIL?

I remember when ISIL first burst into the global consciousness – with the fall of Mosul on June 4, 2014. I happened to be visiting my parents.

My mother rushed in and told me that terrorists in Toyotas had overrun Iraq’s second-largest city in a modern-day Mongol Horde.

I rolled my eyes.

I explained to her that, as usual, she was exaggerating. What she was describing was undoubtedly impossible, and I patiently explained why:

The West has satellites which are tracking everyone at every moment – surely they would see fleets of armed trucks speeding towards Iraq. Undoubtedly they would open fire, not only to get the human target practice they so adore but because – despite an alleged “withdrawal” at the end of 2011 – they had 30,000 American soldiers and contractors in Iraq to protect. Certainly they would have seen this mass army amassing before they ever left their barracks and notified somebody to do something, if the US didn’t want to fight them. Frankly, not even the US would unleash something which my Mom was describing.

Moms… so gullible and prone to worry, eh? They mean well, but I had no doubt I was totally in the right, and if my Mom wouldn’t or couldn’t understand… what can a son do but humor their mom?

It turned out that I was the gullible one and that my Mom was right. (As I get older I realize this happens more often than I would have previously imagined.)

I was gullible to believe that the US would not do all those things I told my mom they would not, but I was not totally stupid: The spectacularly swift rise of ISIL still cannot be properly explained by Washington.

But the current US president claimed to have the answer in August 2016 – Donald Trump said his predecessor Barack Obama was the “founder of ISIS”.

Certainly that resonated around the world and inside the US. 9/11 made widespread the knowledge that the US created the Taliban, who had come back to bite the hand that fed it. That September Obama returned US soldiers to Iraq, something the average American surely did not want.

Trump toned down his comments slightly, but Trump the campaigner had done what he repeatedly did and what immediately earned him the enmity of the US 1%, Deep State and Wall Street – he openly told truths about US neo-imperialism, which no US presidential candidate had ever even come close to suggesting. Combine this “Main Street” honesty with his similar “you can’t say that” truths against free markets/free trade, as well as the total corruption of the two US political parties, and that’s how you get a reality-TV star as president of the self-appointed “leader of the free world”.

The US returned to Iraq, but they continued to let ISIL run free. Today, the whole world knows that Iranian General Qassem Soleimani – appallingly assassinated by Trump – was the architect who led ISIL’s defeat.

The assassination on Iraqi soil of Iran’s Qassem Soleimani will produce many things, and global resentment and hatred for Washington is undoubtedly already one of them.

But the US has known of Iran’s leadership in the war on terror, and the West’s terrorist tolerance, for years. On June 5, 2015, top US news magazine Newsweek ran a story about Soleimani entitled “Iranian Military Mastermind Leading Battle to Recapture Tikrit from ISIS”.

And yet Washington’s propaganda line, being dutifully and unquestioningly repeated by countless US and Western “journalists” is that Soleimani was killed because he was a “terrorist”?

That is insulting on too many levels to list in this brief article.

But it’s not only the brave, incredibly missed martyr Soleimani – whom I described as “the Muslim Che Guevara”, because both were international anti-imperialist fighters and heroes slain by Washington – but all of Iran which fights ISIL.

The West knew this already, too: When it comes to foreign policy Newsweek never seriously deviates from the Washington & Wall Street propaganda lines – the notion is laughable – which is why they probably deeply regret their 2nd-most recent issue: on December 27, 2019, their very cover featured Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei with the caption, “If Iran falls, ISIS rises again.”

Yes. Of course. The whole world knows this about Iran, about Soleimani and about the anti-terror ideals of the Iranian Islamic Revolution. The whole world knows the US and their allies do nothing to stop ISIS.

For decades Iran has been the only country which has sacrificed time, money and lives for foreigners in the international fight against US capitalist-imperialism. This is why the illegal, inhuman slaying of Soleimani must be dressed up as “anti-terrorism” by Washington.

The huge turnout of Iranians for the funeral procession of Major General Qassem Soleimani belies US claims that Iranians were not “saddened” by the heinous act against the national hero.

I described how, ever since the WMD lie of 2003, US democracy has featured a “false-life syndrome”, where everyone is forced to publicly repeat lies about the machinations of the Pentagon. The Iraq War fundamentally changed US democracy by demanding that no one seriously question the official narrative – no matter how preposterous – something which did occur during their Vietnam War.

WMDs, Soleimani and the creation and support of ISIL – all lies from Washington. If the US did not support ISIL why did Soleimani have to be invited by the Iraqi government to fight them? Either the spectacularly-funded US military is even more rife with corruption than we already know, or they never planned to fight ISIL, but to aid them.

And who is aided more by the slaying of Soleimani than the ISIL terrorists?

That is the fundamental moral question, and this question goes beyond geopolitical strategy – at least to the average, normal person.

However, Western liberal, aristocratic, domestically-resented democracies cannot honestly answer. This is why Germany, France and the UK all publicly supported the assassination, in great shame to their own people.

If Washington assassinated Soleimani because he was a “terrorist”, then logically they should now de-list ISIL as a terrorist group. Why not just come clean, finally?

The entire world acknowledges that Soleimani fought terrorism, but if he must be rebranded as a “terrorist” in the West – in Orwellian fashion – then the time has come for the US and its allies to admit they are collaborating with ISIL. Fighting against ISIL makes one a “terrorist”, not fighting with them.

Why is that so hard to believe? The current US president said the same thing – are we both wild conspiracy theorists?

Hardly – we are simply two people who know just a bit of basic history. Hillary Clinton – who would have probably started a full-scale war with Iran by now – got the horrific, despised anti-Iran cult the MKO (MEK) de-listed even though they are still detestable terrorists and murderers. The US supported the Taliban. The US supports the neo-Nazi groups who led the coup in Ukraine, and who could easily be behind the latest example of the inhuman Western sabotage of airplanes in Iran – today’s terrible crash of a Ukraine International Airlines flight from Tehran.

Why not ISIL as well?

Above all, it would make it clear that Washington’s main enemy in the Muslim World is the continued success and support of the 1979 popular revolution in Iran, and the bad example it sets for their neo-imperial clients worldwide.

Trump claims he wants to fight ISIL, and even claims he is willing to work with Iran to do so, but then he assassinates the leader of the anti-ISIL fight and falsely brands him a “terrorist”?

The US assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani underscored that President Trump is an “inexperienced, impulsive and perpetually aggrieved commander in chief,” according to an editorial in The New York Times.

Calling anti-terror hero Soleimani a “terrorist” is obviously a desperate way to falsely brand all of Iran as “terrorists”, but the world now knows the real truth better than ever. Washington, in their imperialist arrogance, believes that we do not.

Newsweek, Obama, the Clintons and Trump do not care for Iraq or about stopping ISIL, not like Soleimani and Iran.

No amount of Orwellian, mind-erasing doublespeak from Washington will ever change that, and no matter how much they aid ISIL by assassinating its enemies.

By Ramin Mazaheri
(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV.)

January 11, 2020 0 comments

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 266

++ After the illegal assassination of general Qassem Soleimani, videos and audios in support of president Trump flooded Farsi social media. These all turned out to be fake. The only ones that were true were MEK outlets, which genuinely support Trump. Very quickly an audio emerged from Massoud Rajavi – presumed dead – as the only Iranian who officially and publicly supported Trump and endorsed the assassination. As usual in the audio he threatens the ex-members with death. But, his message and further statements by Maryam Rajavi say this assassination is not enough. ‘Now you have bombed the convoy in Iraq you should hit them and their places in Iran and Iraq and Syria’, scream the Rajavis. In the end Massoud and Maryam both ask the Americans to re-arm the MEK. Other MEK outlets ranted, using foul language against anyone who doesn’t praise Trump. Ironically that includes the poet laureate of Iran who says he feels sad they have killed Soleimani. All the MEK sites went on full on attack against Mahmoud Dolatabadi. ‘How dare you say you are sad; your hands are soaked in blood and etc’, they screamed. This ranting caused a serious backlash for Rajavi, especially after everything died down and Trump didn’t go to war with Iran. News from inside MEK says that members of the NCRI are really angry about Rajavi jumping on the bandwagon without thinking it through. One spoke to MEK supporters in London. They told him ‘we have a thousand questions after this. Not least is that we MEK are on our backs, Maryam Rajavi has been deported from EU to Albania, Massoud has not been seen for decades and the US government is saying nobody allowed to talk to you. Instead of working on this you are asking for arms in Albania. To do what? Where? How?’ Further questions spilled out: ‘Are we Iranian or not? If we are, didn’t we see the number of people who came out in support of Soleimani?’ The NCRI representative says that ‘we [in the NCRI] all say the same things, we also have the same questions, but nobody in MEK is answering. It is a self-inflicted wound. You didn’t have to do this. Even the US and Israel didn’t ask us to support the assassination like that. This is the madness of Maryam Rajavi.’ As for the audio being genuine or not. Most MEK supporters think not. Especially after it was pointed out that the voice is that of a 30-year-old man. Rajavi – if alive – is around 70. So, members don’t believe this is his voice. Javad Firouzmand from Arya Association in Paris put out a short note directed at Rajavi in which he reminds him he’s always been trying to jump on somebody’s bandwagon – Khomeini, Saddam, Pompeo. He ends it by saying ‘once again you smelled a barbeque and invited yourself to the feast. But you are mistaken, that is the smell of branding donkeys!’

In English:

++ Before the illegal assassination of general Soleimani, Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and those accompanying them, news about the MEK focused on their failure to influence the fuel protests in Iran and their continued efforts to use social media to create fake news and pervert the narrative on Iran toward their regime change agenda. Post-Soleimani, it became clear that the MEK are totally isolated on this issue as the only Iranians who praised Trump and condemned Soleimani. Massoud Khodabandeh pointed out, in an article published by The Iranian and Responsible Statecraft, that “the blinkered aim of the Trump administration’s foreign policy to manufacture regime change against Iran by any means possible including all-out war has in fact resulted in the opposite result. Regime change is now in its coffin and the assassination of general Soleimani is the last nail hammered in.” And concluded that “the unwanted assassination of Soleimani will result in tectonic shifts in the world order. No matter how hard mainstream media in the West works to normalize America’s actions, security and military experts the world over will have their own ideas about what the future holds.”

++ The MEK is also mentioned in some articles as having a negative influence on US foreign policy, acting through proxies like Giuliani, Bolton and Mukaskey. This led to Pompeo ordering American officials not to talk with them according to Nick Wadhams in Bloomberg. “’Direct U.S. government engagement with these groups could prove counterproductive to our policy goal of seeking a comprehensive deal with the Iranian regime that addresses its destabilizing behavior,’ the cable said. Exiled Iranian opposition groups ‘try to engage U.S. officials regularly to gain at least the appearance of tacit support and enhance their visibility and clout.’ Cut Ties With MEK – Pompeo Ordered Officials.”
2020/01/10

January 11, 2020 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

After Soleimani’s Assassination, There Will Be No Regime Change in Tehran

Anyone who believes that President Trump’s order to illegally assassinate Quds Force leader Qassem Soleimani, Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and several more Iraqis, was an act of strength has not been properly paying attention. This is the latest in a series of stupid policy errors by this administration which have not only strengthened the hand of America’s enemies but have also now ensured that the rest of the world, with the exceptions of Israel and Saudi Arabia, now at best views the U.S. with mistrust, or at the very worst hate America more than any other country on earth. This is a remarkable achievement for a man who promised to end the “endless wars” and “drain the swamp.”

Trump started his presidency with the ambition of overturning the Obama administration’s achievements. However, he inherited a foreign policy already predicated on waging war and which was soon re-staffed and promoted by Republican warmongers. In this context, withdrawing unilaterally from the Iran nuclear deal might have appeared to be a strong-arm tactic to Trump, but to America’s allies in Europe it looked like a betrayal, and a slap in the face. Still, none were willing to come out on the side of Iran at that time. Even Russia and China were holding back at that stage. So, what were the steps in between which culminated in late December in an unprecedented four days of joint naval manoeuvres between Iran, China, and Russia in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Oman? What happened to embolden this trio to flex military muscle in the Middle East?

A review of these steps reveals that the blinkered aim of the Trump administration’s foreign policy to manufacture regime change against Iran by any means possible including all-out war has in fact resulted in the opposite result. Regime change is now in its coffin and the assassination of Soleimani is the last nail hammered in.

Instead of promoting freedom and democracy in the Middle East, American interference is destroying every possibility of ordinary people rising up and demanding change from their own governments. In Syria, the people rose up against President Bashar al-Assad because of genuine grievances against that regime. The outcome of U.S. support for Sunni extremists in Syria has been a swing from people supporting the American aim of ousting Assad to rallying behind their own terrible government to save them from the spread of Islamic fundamentalism. With an irony that can be lost on no one, authoritarian Russia and the theocracy in Iran are now allies of Syria in that struggle.

In another reckless act of overturning Obama’s legacy, the new Trump administration halted Hillary Clinton’s plan to de-radicalise the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) in Albania. Since then, American anti-Iran politicians have stuffed the MEK down the throats of the international community as the regime change opposition that will bring freedom and democracy to Iran. Since Iranians hate the MEK more than the current Islamic Republic, this has been a gift to the hard-liners in Iran. To quell every protest or demonstration since then, Iran’s security forces have only to claim that MEK are involved in inciting violence for the ordinary people to go home and announce their abhorrence of the MEK.

American actions are consolidating people around their own hated governments instead of helping them express their legitimate demands. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s response to the anti-government protests in Iran in November was to repeat false information published by the MEK about the death toll. When Pompeo retweets MEK propaganda it destroys any trust among Iranians that the U.S. has their interests in mind.

In another remarkable example of how Pompeo has frittered away American power and influence, just weeks ago, disgruntled Iraqi citizens were in the streets demonstrating against Iranian interference in their country. Instead of supporting them, Pompeo oversaw the U.S. bombing of Iraqi militia forces that were fighting against ISIS. The Iraqi people cannot take the U.S. side over this no matter how anti-Iran they are. If America had done nothing, said nothing, Iraqi people would still be in the street demonstrating against their own government. Instead, different Iraqis attacked the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Now, in a pivotal act of hubris, the illegal assassination of Soleimani and Iraqi militia leaders at an international airport not only allows Iran to describe the U.S. as a terrorist state, but has brought Iranians of every belief together to rally together to mourn a national hero, the man who saved Iran from ISIS.

But it would be a mistake to believe that the U.S.’s Middle East foreign policy mistakes only impacted that region. In 1981, France gifted the CIA some land to host the MEK outside Paris from where they could plan their armed resistance to the new regime. Although France did not use the MEK politically as America did, their presence was tolerated. Until, that is, MEK activities began to impact European security and democracy.

In 2017, John Bolton, just before he became Trump’s National Security Advisor, promised the MEK they would celebrate in Tehran before the 40th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution in February 2019. That did not happen, of course. But events subsequent to this promise certainly indicated there were already plans afoot to use the MEK to undermine European policy toward Iran. A bomb plot against the MEK in France was discovered by security forces in France and Belgium to have been a false-flag operation by the MEK used to blame and demonize Iran. After numerous acts of violence and confirmation that the MEK had funded Spain’s far-right Vox party in its EU election bid, several European countries, including Germany and the Netherlands as well as France and Belgium moved to expel MEK leaders, including leader Maryam Rajavi, to Albania.

In Albania, the MEK have caused multiple headaches for the government and the opposition there. The worst result of which has been the EU’s refusal to allow Albania to join the union. After kicking out the MEK, no European country would allow them to enter through the back door again.

Significantly, what these policy steps over time have revealed to America’s foes and her friends alike is that the U.S. cannot be trusted. The Trump administration has shown a reckless disregard for normal behavior in the international scene. It acts with callous cruelty and indifference against enemies and allies alike.

The unwanted assassination of Soleimani will result in tectonic shifts in the world order. No matter how hard mainstream media in the West works to normalize America’s actions, security and military experts the world over will have their own ideas about what the future holds.

Responsible Statecraft

January 9, 2020 0 comments

USA

Pompeo orders diplomats not to meet with MEK and other opposition groups

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sent a cable to all US missions overseas ordering diplomats not to meet with Iranian opposition groups without specific approval because it could further exacerbate tensions with the Iranian regime.

“Many exiled Iranian opposition groups try to engage U.S. officials regularly to gain at least the appearance of tacit support and enhance their visibility and clout,”Pompeo said, according to a copy of the cable obtained by CNN. He noted that many of these groups”have previously or are currently using violent means in support of their political aims.”
“Direct U.S. government engagement with these groups could prove counterproductive to our policy goal of seeking a comprehensive deal with the Iranian regime that addresses its destabilizing behavior,”Pompeo wrote.
The cable’s existence, first reported by Bloomberg, is coming to light in the aftermath of the deadly US drone strike that President Donald Trump ordered last week to kill Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani.
Pompeo sent the instructions early this week and his indirect reference to attempts at diplomatic outreach to Iran comes as the Trump administration has refused to issue a visa to Iran’s top diplomat, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
In recent days, Trump administration officials have not laid out any specific steps they are taking to engage in diplomacy with Iran, though they have said they are willing to do so. Iran, over the last year, has not acted upon any of Trump’s comments that he is willing to meet Iranian leadership, but Zarif said publicly he was willing to discuss prisoner exchanges.
The cable lists a number of Iranian opposition groups, including Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, known as the MEK, and five other Iranian opposition groups that are off limits without specific approval. John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, has previously said the MEK is a”viable opposition”to the current Iranian regime.
Last month Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, met with Iranian opposition groups that are linked to the MEK. Bolton and Giuliani have also given paid speeches on the group’s behalf. During one of those speeches last year, Giuliani called for regime change in Iran.
The MEK, which was previously on a US terrorism list, paid Bolton to give speeches on its behalf and once employed Giulianir.
Pompeo warned in the cable that it would be”counterproductive”to engage these groups. He said some of them have histories of using violence to achieve political objectives and that some of them seek to overthrow the Iranian regime.
Given the escalating tensions with Iran in the wake of the strike on Soleimani, the cable appears to be an attempt to demonstrate that the Trump administration wants to avoid the perception that it is conspiring with opposition groups to push for regime change.
In the cable, Pompeo cited the administration’s willingness to seek a”comprehensive deal”with Iran that covers a range of Iranian activities including”its destabilizing behavior, including its nuclear program, missile program, support for terrorism, and malign regional behavior.”
The State Department has not replied to a request for comment on the cable.
It’s not clear which Iranian officials the US administration would engage. In an NPR interview aired Tuesday, Zarif said he had requested the visa 25 days ago but the US State Department told him it”didn’t have enough time to issue a visa.”
In an interview with CNN’s Fred Pleitgen, Zarif said he wasn’t concerned about the Trump administration barring him entry to the US. When asked about his reaction to being denied the visa, Zarif answered with a laugh,”Well, what are they afraid of?”
Pompeo, speaking at the State Department on Tuesday, said that”we don’t comment on visa matters for those traveling to the United States,”and added that”we will always comply with our obligations”under the UN charter.
US officials are not completely disengaging with groups who oppose the Iranian regime. On Tuesday Brian Hook, the State Department special representative for Iran, met with leadership from the Simon Wiesenthal Center leadership, a Jewish human rights organization.
Members of the center praised the Trump administration for the Soleimani strike and one of them urged additional killings of Iranian leaders.
“The entire leadership of Iran denies the existence of the Holocaust and we have to worry about how we treat them. If they are going to kill American soldiers, we have an obligation to do what President Obama did to Osama bin Laden, what the President of Czechoslovakia did to Reinhard Heydrich, that should be done to the Iranian leaders,”Rabbi Marvin Hier, the founder of the center, said on Tuesday.
CNN’s Nicole Gaouette contributed to this report.
By Kylie Atwood,

January 8, 2020 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

VOA promoting MEK regime change agenda!

Nick Muzin, a controversial Republican lobbyist and loyalist to President Donald Trump, holds a contract to provide programming services for Voice of America Persian, the American government-backed media outlet set up to produce journalistic content for the Iranian community around the world.

The government contract, which was awarded last year, is the latest sign that VOA Persian has continued transform into what former employees of the nonprofit news outlet have called “blatant propaganda” designed to promote Trump and regime change in Iran.

Muzin’s lobbying firm, Stonington Global, which was retained by VOA Persian to provide public relations and talent booking on a contract that began on May 22, 2019, does not appear to have any journalistic credentials. The firm lists a ¬¬variety of lobbying and defense procurement services on its website and is run by a team made up largely of former Republican aides. The VOA Persian statement of work stipulates that the contract will include a range editorial development duties.

Muzin, a physician and former aide to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz who also served on the Trump campaign and the transition, was one of the many operatives to move swiftly into lobbying over the last three years, helping both domestic clients and foreign governments curry favor with the administration.

Neither Muzin’s lobbying firm, Stonington Global LLC, nor the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees VOA Persian, responded to a request for comment.

Muzin made headlines early last year for a controversial contract on behalf of Qatar to mend relations with officials in Washington, D.C. Along with his business partner Joey Allaham, a proprietor of high-end kosher restaurants in New York, Muzin collected $3.9 million from the Qatari government to secure meetings and win favor with people known to have connections with Trump. The plan included charting out 250 “influencers,” with Muzin securing payments from his client to the Zionist Organization of America and Mike Huckabee (the former governor of Arkansas who now has ties to the Trump administration as well as Fox) as part of the lobbying effort.

Elliott Broidy, a prominent Republican fundraiser tapped by the United Arab Emirates to lobby the U.S. to sever ties with Qatar, accused Muzin of participating in an alleged Qatari plot to hack his emails. In August, a federal judge in California dismissed Broidy’s lawsuit against Muzin and his lobbying firm on jurisdictional grounds, without ruling on the merits of the case.

Muzin was paid $500,000 by a shell company linked to Russian individuals as part of a lobbying venture to boost an Albanian political party aligned with the Russian government.

Since 1940, the American government has funded media programs as part of a foreign affairs strategy, first as a counter to Nazi Germany during World War II, then through expanded efforts to counter the Soviet Union’s influence around the world, which led to the founding of Voice of America. VOA’s broadcasts into Iran began in the early 1940s, as part of a program known initially as the Farsi Service.

VOA and its affiliates have been governed by presidential appointees under close coordination with the State Department. As the Intercept previously reported, VOA Persian once provided a relatively balanced perspective, reporting stories with mainstream journalistic standards, often even airing segments critical of the U.S.

But the quality of VOA Persian, however, quickly degraded after Trump’s election. Congressional Republicans reshaped the organizational structure, handing enhanced authority to the chief executive of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (formerly known as the Broadcasting Board of Governors) that oversees the network.

Kenneth Weinstein, Trump’s pick to lead the agency, simultaneously serves as head of the Hudson Institute, a neoconservative think tank whose experts have repeatedly called for bombing Iran. One of the early appointees brought in to shape the agency’s overhaul, Vincent Trovato, previously worked for Cambridge Analytica and the Trump campaign.

VOA Persian now provides wall-to-wall positive coverage for hard-line regime change advocates. The network provides reliably favorable coverage of Mojahedin-e Khalq, or MEK, the militant opposition that has worked with Israeli intelligence to carry out assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists, even providing a platform for Heshmat Alavi, a fake persona created by MEK. The network’s journalists have also expressed far-right sentiments that have unsettled longtime former VOA Persian reporters, including continued attacks at perceived critics of Trump. Saman Arbabi, one VOA Persian host, mockingly compared the hijab worn by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., to a Ku Klux Klan hood.

In recent days, one VOA Persian host, Masih Alinejad, has appeared on CNN and Fox News and been quoted by major U.S. newspapers to praise Trump’s decision assassinate of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani. Many outlets depicted Alinejad as an independent journalist. Responsible Statecraft, a project of the Quincy Institute, noted that every outlet failed to disclose Alinejad’s work for VOA Persian, and has received payments from the government totaling at least $305,000 since 2015.

After publication, The Intercept received the following statement from VOA spokesperson Bridget Ann Serchak: “The firm was contracted to assist VOA in booking guests in a process that was competitively bid and awarded. The firm is paid on an hourly basis. They are used occasionally (not within the past few months) when they have contacts that our journalists do not.”
Lee Fang, theintercept

January 7 2020, 11:00 p.m.
https://theintercept.com/2020/01/07/voa-persian-iran-trump-conflict-of-interest/

January 8, 2020 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

UANI ties to the MEK terrorists raises new questions

Article Summary
New lobbying disclosures raise new questions about the ties between the hawkish organization United Against Nuclear Iran to the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq.

The main group pushing for regime change in Iran lobbied the head of the hawkish United Against Nuclear Iran on the sidelines of his organization’s annual event in New York last fall, new lobbying filings show.
The disclosure raises new questions about ties between United Against Nuclear Iran CEO Mark Wallace and the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a Paris-based umbrella group dominated by the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq. The council also met twice with President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani around the time of the UN General Assembly, drawing renewed attention to Giuliani’s unregistered advocacy on behalf of the group.
The council’s US office disclosed meeting Sept. 23 with Wallace to discuss “developments in Iran” — the first time the group has reported meeting with the United Against Nuclear Iran CEO since registering to lobby in May 2013. The next day, Wallace hosted a gathering of Iranian opposition groups dominated by the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, raising criticism from some Iran watchers distrustful of a group that the State Department designated a terrorist organization until 2012.
United Against Nuclear Iran sought to distance itself from the event at the time, saying Wallace had convened it in his personal capacity on the eve of the group’s official annual summit Sept. 25. Al-Monitor, however, reported at the time that the program for the event was listed as United Against Nuclear Iran, something the group said was in error.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran and United Against Nuclear Iran share similar views on Iran. Both applauded last week’s US airstrike that killed Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani, with United Against Nuclear Iran calling it a “significant blow” to Iran’s military power while the council labeled it a “fatal blow” to the regime in Tehran.
United Against Nuclear Iran did not respond to a request for comment for this story.The US office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran also disclosed meeting with Giuliani, the keynote speaker at Wallace’s event, to discuss “the human rights situation in Iran” and “developments in Iran” on Sept. 23 and Sept. 25. The group previously disclosed lobbying Giuliani in September 2018.

Recruited By Giuliani,Maria Ryan is lobbying for the MEK terrorists

Giuliani has long been plagued by accusations that he is taking money from the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq and affiliated groups without properly registering as a foreign lobbyist. He told Bloomberg last year that he was paid by a US organization of Iranian-Americans rather than the France-based National Council of Resistance of Iran to speak at the council’s rallies. Such “grasstops” lobbying of influential figures who have the ear of government officials is fairly common, legal experts say, and would only require an intermediary to register as a lobbyist if he or she is shown to be acting on behalf of a foreign principal rather than simply providing a favor.
The filing of the US office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran is also notable for revealing that Washington law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld is serving as legal counsel to the council’s US office. In a statement to the Justice Department’s Foreign Agents Registration Act unit, the firm argues that the donors to the National Council of Resistance of Iran should be kept anonymous to avoid retaliation by Iran.
Akin Gump notably lobbies for the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Iran’s biggest rivals in the Gulf. Neither Akin Gump nor the National Council of Resistance of Iran replied to a request for comment about how long the firm had represented the council as legal counsel.
Akin Gump previously lobbied on behalf of the Iranian American Community of Northern California — which has been linked to the National Council of Resistance of Iran — to get the State Department to delist the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq. The firm reported $620,000 in lobbying-related payments for those efforts in 2011 and 2012.
The council’s US office reported receiving more than $123,000 from June 1, 2019, through Nov. 30, 2019, from about 100 donors. The group reported spending more than $120,000 during that timeframe.
Julian Pecquet is the Editor of Special Projects for Al-Monitor, where he supervises the award-winning Lobbying Tracker as well as managing long-form stories. Before that he covered the US Congress for Al-Monitor. Prior to joining Al-Monitor, Pecquet led global affairs coverage for the political newspaper The Hill.

January 8, 2020 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Assassinations Supporting MEK Sanctions – US obeys no laws

What comes next in the Middle East

Summary: Our brutal neo-colonial policy in the Middle East – without goals, reason, or even respect for our “allies” in the region – may be entering a new phase. Trump’s stupidity might start a disastrous war, but it was doomed to fail catastrophically. Eventually.

Before predictions, clearly see the present

When reading the news, remember that US government officials usually lie. As Daniel Larson explains in “Lying Us Into War With Iran.” Much of the coverage of these events by the mainstream media has reprinted US government propaganda. The NYT perfectly captures this folly by asking “can the United States maintain a cooperative security relationship with Iraq given the upheaval the assassination has provoked?” A more rational question is can the US treat its allies with respect, not as colonies and puppet regimes? They quote Richard N. Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations and a former American diplomat.

“One sure result of the U.S. strike is that the era of U.S.-Iraq cooperation is over. …The U.S. diplomatic & mil presence will end b/c Iraq asks us to depart or our presence is just a target or both. The result will be greater Iranian influence, terrorism and Iraqi infighting.”

This assumes that US influence leads to regional stability. History shows that to be delusionally false. The US requires its puppet regimes to act contrary to their people’s interests, which evaporates their legitimacy and leads to domestic instability. Even more delusional is this, by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

“We have every expectation that people, not only in Iraq but in Iran, will view the American action last night as giving them freedom.”

For an excellent analysis of the situation in Iraq by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies. Benjamin is the author of Blood on Our Hands: The American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq. Follow her on Twitter. Davies is the author of Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Follow him on Twitter.

Also see Mohammad Ali Shabani‘s “Donald Trump’s assassination of Qassem Suleimani will come back to haunt him.” He is a PhD student at Soas University of London, where he focuses on implications of the Shi’a ascent to power in Iraq.

“By 2014, when he successfully halted Islamic State’s attempt to overrun Iraq, Suleimani was being feted as a hero among Iraqis alongside the local commanders, including al-Muhandis. The same response was evident in Iran, where he quickly became a household name and was rumoured to be a potential future president – a trend strengthened by the Trump administration’s unilateral withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018.

“So the US has not merely killed an Iranian military commander but also a highly popular figure, viewed as a guardian of Iran even among secular-minded Iranians. And with the assassination of al-Muhandis, the Trump administration has put itself in the position of having killed the operational commander of a large branch of the Iraqi armed forces. …For all his crowing about the decisive blow dealt to an insolent enemy, Trump may be about to discover that the problem with martyrs is that they live forever.”

What will Iran do in response?

The news overflows with guessing by people without a clue. For a rare sensible analysis, see this by Scott Ritter: “Iranian Revenge Will Be A Dish Best Served Cold.” He is the author of 7 books; his most recent is Deal of the Century: How the Iranian Nuclear Agreement Was Won, Then Lost, and the Possible Consequences (2018).

The more likely consequences are that we are ejected from Iraq again, the Iraq – Iran alliance grows tighter, and that Iran’s regime grows stronger. I doubt anyone can predict the larger and longer-term responses. Those guessing about Iran’s response usually assume that its government will respond to popular pressure with a small but dramatic gesture. Or that they might act with cool rationality – playing the long game, using America’s aggressions to unify the region against its foreign infidel invaders.

Or this might be like July 1914, when decades of tensions unexpectedly ignite geopolitical fires that none can extinguish except with the blood of millions.

What would we do?

What would Americans do if treated by a superpower as we have treated Iran? Daniel Larison is one of the few to ask that question.

“Imagine how angrily we would respond if a foreign government assassinated a high-profile, well-liked military officer while he was traveling inside an allied country, and that might give us some idea of how Iranians perceive this attack. That matters because it means that there will be tremendous pressure on the Iranian government to respond to the attack, and it also means that there will be political support for retaliation. If the administration wanted to find a way to trigger a war with Iran that bolsters the Iranian government’s standing at home, this is how to do it.”

But that’s a tame perspective. Go back to the beginning. In 1953 the CIA’s Operation Ajax helped overthrow Iran’s elected government (Wikipedia) and installed a tyrant. The US government long denied it, admitting it in 2017. Of course, the people of Iran already knew; only Americans were still ignorant.

That tyrant remained in power with our support and his brutal secret police (SAVAK). He was ejected in a 1979 Revolution. We waged continuous war against Iran after their revolution. Justified by lies – such as claims that they were building nukes (Fear Iran’s nukes, coming very soon since 1984). We used these claims to justify economic warfare against them, assassinating their scientists, supporting insurgent terrorists (MEK), and probably more things not yet public.

Iran’s response to these attacks has been mild. They did push back to America’s occupation of Iraq, mildly compared to America’s military enforcement of its Monroe Doctrine. This points to the core aspect of this geopolitical struggle for control of the Middle East: our hypocrisy. No matter how often or brutally we attack Iran – who threatens only our imperial dreams – we see ourselves as the noble victims.

Imagine if the roles were reversed. How would America respond to a nation attacking them as we attacked Iran? Rivers of blood would flow.

A response to America’s imperial wars

We are bombing and killing people around the world 24-7, year after year. I worry that eventually we will kill one or more people whose relatives organize intelligently conducted terrorism against America. Not with political or monetary goals, just killing for revenge. Mindless killing, just as historians will see our operations around the world today. Imagine a 9/11 every month or so. Imagine copycats, dumb but numerous, doing similar operations – drawing on the millions of people we have angered.

Or something else will happen that is equally unexpected and catastrophic. I doubt we can contine our operations without some kind of bad ending for America.

“Sooner or later everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences.”
— Attributed to Robert Lewis Stevenson.

Other voices

This is a follow-up to yesterday’s important post: Let’s cheer another successful assassination!

How dare Iran do what America routinely does for the same reasons! See “Suleimani’s assassination and the muddled moralism behind it” by Robert Wright at NonZero (which has much interesting and provocative material).

About the legal doctrine used by America and Israel for its attacks: “Lies, the Bethlehem Doctrine, and the Illegal Murder of Soleimani” by former British diplomat Craig Murray.

Jeremy Scahill at The Intercept. He is an investigative reporter and author of two books, including Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield

“Trump campaigned on belligerence toward Iran and trashing the Obama-led Iran nuclear deal, and he has followed through on those threats, filling his administration with the most vile, hawkish figures in the U.S. national security establishment. …

“Much as the neoconservatives came to power in 2001 after the election of George W. Bush with the goal of regime change in Iraq, Trump in his bumbling way assembled a team of extremists who viewed him as their best chance of wiping the Islamic Republic of Iran off the map.

“While Barack Obama provided crucial military and intelligence support for Saudi Arabia’s scorched earth campaign in Yemen, which killed untold numbers of civilians, Trump escalated that mass murder in a blatant effort to draw Iran militarily into a conflict. That was the agenda of the gulf monarchies and Israel, and it coincided neatly with the neoconservative dreams of overthrowing the Iranian government.”

BY Fabiusmaximus.com

January 7, 2020 0 comments

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