Page 183 – Nejat Society

Kurds Boycotted UANI MEK Gathering

Pompeo to speak at Iran opposition event snubbed by Kurds

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iran’s Kurdish parties say they will not take part in a conference allegedly organized by the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) on the fringes of the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday because the Kurdish question in Iran is not a key part of the agenda.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is scheduled to speak at the event fronted by Iran hawk and former diplomat Mark Wallace, according to The Washington Post.

The US State Department considered MEK a terrorist organization until it was de-listed in 2012.
With the help of a powerful lobby in the US establishment, MEK has sought to present itself as the official opposition to the Iranian regime.
Confusion over who actually organized the event, and the belief that Kurdish issues have been left off the agenda, led Kurdish parties in Iran to decline invitations.

“The Cooperation Center of Iranian Kurdistan Political Parties is informing the public that after subjective interpretations from all the parties, we agreed not to take part in the conference set be held on September 24 under ‘The Future Iran’ in New York,” a joint statement from the parties read.
The cooperation centre was formed by five Iranian Kurdish parties to better coordinate their activities. The Kurdistan Democratic Party-Iran (PDK-I), Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), and two branches of the left-wing Komala party are among its members.
Salih Sharifi, spokesperson of the cooperation center, told Rudaw: “The Kurdish movement has its weight among the Iranian oppositions and it should be the case when it comes to taking part in such conferences.”
“But in the agenda of the New York conference, the weight and position of Kurds is unclear to us,” he said.
According to the official organizers of the conference, invitations were sent to Kurdish opposition groups a few months ago.
“It is even unclear which side sent the invitations, nor did it say which parties were to attend,” he added.
According to media reports, the controversial MEK group is said to be the main organizer of the conference.

“Not all the opposition parties of Islamic Republic are attending the conference either,” Sharifi said.
MEK, which Tehran considers a terrorist organization, is an opposition party headquartered in Albania, with a presence in France and the US. The party advocates for regime change in Iran.
In 1981 the MEK formed an alliance with the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI). However, the KDPI left the alliance in April 1985 when its then-leader pursued talks with the regime regarding Kurdish autonomy. MEK said there should be no negotiation with the regime.
The group was listed as a terrorist organization for its role in the overthrow of the Western-backed government of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and for its ties to the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
It has since been rehabilitated as an acceptable opposition movement, although critics have likened it to a cult.
Former National Security Advisor John Bolton, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, former senator Joseph I. Lieberman, and former Vermont governor Howard Dean have all spoken it its events.
Pompeo’s decision to speak at Tuesday’s gathering is another sign of establishment endorsement.
Tensions between Tehran and Washington have been increasingly fraught since May 2018 when US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the landmark 2015 nuclear accord and reimposed crippling economic sanctions.
Although Iranian Kurdish parties were not invited to a mid-February US-Poland conference in Warsaw, they called for unity among the Iranian opposition and urged the world to work with them if they want to contain the Islamic Republic’s destabilizing activities.
Kurdish groups such as the PDKI and PDK-I, Komala, and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)-affiliated Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) have been based in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region since 1992 and often engaging in sporadic military confrontations with Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the border areas.
Iran is worried the US, Israel, and their regional allies are using the Kurds against the regime in Tehran. However, Kurds have categorically rejected the claims, saying they fight for greater rights for their nation in the western part of the country, known as Rojhalat.

Zhelwan Z. Wali, Rudaw,

September 28, 2019 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Among terrorists, blaming Iran for terrorism!

Pompeo addresses anti-Iran summit associated with terror groups, blames Iran for terrorism

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has addressed a gathering of notorious anti-Iran terrorist and separatist groups in a bid to urge action against Iranian”aggression.”

Speaking at the United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) 2019 summit in New York on Wednesday, Pompeo called on world countries to stand with the US alongside Israel, announcing new sanctions against Iran and blaming Tehran for backing”terrorist groups”.

The Unites States has imposed new sanctions on Chinese firms and individuals over violation the US illegal sanctions on Iran.

The summit, which was being held on the sidelines of the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, is reported to be dominated by terrorist groups such as the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO).

Earlier this week, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi described the UANI as an American”cover organization”closely tied to terror groups, adding that Tehran would consider blacklisting the UANI as a terrorist group.

Senior official from Saudi Arabia, Israel and Bahrain also took part in the anti-Iran meeting.

Speaking at the summit on Wednesday, Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir accused Iran of terrorism and of being behind the recent Yemeni-claimed attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities, an allegation firmly rejected by Tehran.

Jubeir said that Riyadh was considering political and military options in response to the attacks.

Saudi Arabia has forged close links with separatist and terrorist groups seeking to operate in Iran, most notably the MKO. In May 2017, Saudi Arabia, under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, pledged to take”the battle”to Iran.

Washington, which had labeled the MKO as a terror organization until dropping the designation in 2012, has also considerably stepped up support for the group and other like-minded terror organization targeting Iran.

The increasingly confrontational approach against Tehran by Tel Aviv, Riyadh and Washington has, nonetheless, raised concerns about a probable disastrous military quagmire in the region.

Iran’s foreign minister says an all-out war in the region is quite a possibility in case of a US military strike against the Islamic Republic.

On Wednesday, numerous peace activists attempted to interrupt the UNIA summit in protest against Washington’s provocative campaign of”maximum pressure”against Iran.

Code Pink, a grassroots anti-war NGO based in the US, reported a number of the demos, showing protesters at times being violently dragged away from the event.

September 28, 2019 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Pompeo embraces the Cult killed Americans

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will attend a meeting linked to a terror cult that has murdered 6 Americans

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks to the media before departing from al-Bateen Air Base in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019, as U.S. special representative on Iran Brian Hook, left, listens. (Mandel Ngan/Pool via AP)
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Associated Press

• US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo plans to attend a meeting at the UN General Assembly that is linked to the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (the People’s Mujahedin of Iran).
• MEK is a notorious Iranian cult which has murdered at least six American civilians and thousands of Iranians.
• It was once a designated terrorist organisation.
• MEK has given enormous speaking fees to American politicians willing to

speak at its events, including Rudolph Giuliani, John Bolton, Joe Lieberman, and Howard Dean.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo plans to attend an event at the UN General Assembly tomorrow that is linked to a notorious Iranian cult which has murdered at least six American civilians and spent over 20 years protected by Saddam Hussein’s regime.

The Mujahedin-e-Khalq (or People’s Mujahedin of Iran)”is an organisation that fancies itself as the official Iranian opposition in exile,”said David Patrikarakos, an analyst and author of Nuclear Iran: The Birth of an Atomic State.

“In truth, it’s a cult-like group that was for years on the State Department’s list of terror organisations and has little support in Iran due to the fact that it fought with [Iraqi leader] Saddam’s forces during the Iran-Iraq War.”

The meeting, dubbed the”2019 Iran Summit,”will feature Pompeo and Mark Wallace, a longtime US advocate of MEK. Former US senator Joseph I. Lieberman, who has previously spoken at MEK events, will also attend the Pompeo-Wallace event.

Officially, MEK will hold a separate event, according to the Washington Post, putting a small degree of separation between Pompeo and MEK itself.

When asked about the meeting’s links to MEK, a State Department official”dismissed the concerns about the MEK’s participation in Wallace’s event, [telling the Washington Post],”Have you looked at the people attending the U.N.?”

MEK is currently based in an Albanian compound and does not report the sources of its funding. It has a long history of violence against civilians, hostility towards Israel in rhetoric that borders on anti-Semitic, and sponsorship of attacks against the West.

Despite this, the group has managed to purchase its way to credibility in some US political circles by offering huge speaking fees to US lawmakers willing to share a stage with violent militants. A MEK front group called the National Council of Resistance of Iran is already using Pompeo’s name in its propaganda.

The MEK supported the overthrow of the US-backed regime of the Shah in the 1970s conducting scores of terror attacks against US military and commercial targets inside Iran, as well as supporting the 1979 takeover of the US embassy.

It later broke with its revolutionary comrades and defected to Iraq, and the patronage of its president, Saddam Hussein.

A US State Department analysis concluded that the group had killed six Americans, including military officers and civilians doing business in pre-revolutionary Iran, as well as thousands of Iranian civilians in terror attacks.

This history of aligning with two of America’s most hated enemies in the Middle East — Iraq and Iran — along with its pursuit of a terror campaign inside Iran that killed thousands of civilians, a conclusion reached by the US State Department, led to the group being designated a terror organization by the US government until 2012.

How did a group widely considered among the most bizarre and violent in the region became acceptable company for current US government officials? Money.

After the US invasion of Iraq and defeat of Saddam in 2003, the group immediately began throwing hundreds of thousands of dollars at anti-Iran politicians in Washington, usually in the form of speaking fees to address the group’s rallies and events.

Former National Security Advisor John Bolton, former NYC mayor and current lawyer to the president Rudy Giuliani, former senator Joseph I. Lieberman, and former Vermont governor Howard Dean as well as a slew of lesser-known figures have all addressed the group and publicly taken up their cause. MEK is known for paying very large speaking fees.

This attention — and American desperation for a dissident group to support against the current Iranian regime — led to the group being delisted as a terrorist organization in 2012.

Even if you set aside its history of murdering Americans and supporting despotic regimes, it is unlikely that the group will ever become a credible political partner of the US.

That’s because in Iran, MEK is regarded as a bunch of traitors who fought alongside Saddam Hussein and have a history of murdering Iranian civilians in terror attacks.

“The fact that the Secretary of State is openly meeting with them will only serve to provoke the Iranians with little gain for the US or its interests,”said Patrikarakos. He pointed out that the group is widely hated even by Iranians who otherwise oppose the current regime.

“Indeed, working with them discredits the West in the eyes of normal Iranians who otherwise aren’t crazy about the Islamic Republic,”he added.
Mitch Prothero, Businessinsider.com

September 26, 2019 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Cement ties to MEK Terrorists!

Iran hawks cement ties to former US-designated terrorist group

United Against Nuclear Iran’s CEO embraces the MEK as his group prepared to host Pompeo.

Demonstrators rally to support a leadership change in Iran outside the UN headquarters in New York City, New York, US, Sept. 24, 2019.

NEW YORK — Leading Iran hawks are increasingly open about their ties to a controversial opposition group, triggering Iranian retaliation and posing a quandary for the Donald Trump administration.

On the eve of the hawkish United Against Nuclear Iran’s annual summit featuring Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, UANI CEO Mark Wallace Tuesday convened a gathering of Iranian opposition groups. The event was billed as an unprecedented gathering of diverse opposition groups, including Kurds, Balochs and Azerbaijanis.

“This is the first time in history, since the Iranian revolution in 1978 and 1979, that such a broad cross-section of the leaders and delegates from Iranian dissident … groups have gathered in a convention for Iran’s future,” Wallace said. “This gathering demonstrates the willingness of many here today to set aside many of the disagreements of the past.”

But attendance was dominated by the Mujaheddin-e-Khalq (MEK) and its allies. Iran considers the MEK a terrorist group, as the United States did until 2012.
Also read

UNGA 2019US and world powers continue to talk past each other on Iran at UN

UANI denied any involvement with Tuesday’s event and said Wallace convened it in his “personal capacity.” The program for the event at the Roosevelt Hotel, however, listed UANI as the organizer. UANI said that was an error.
The program for the event listed UANI as the organizer. UANI says that was an error.

The group may be reluctant to be seen as openly rooting for the MEK, which advocates for overthrowing the ruling clerics in Tehran and has critics even among Iranians who oppose Tehran. A Los Angeles-based Iranian American pro-democracy activist told Al-Monitor that people in that community had advised UANI against being involved in an event including the MEK and controversial ethnic separatist groups.

“Terrible choices,” the activist said. “Many separatist groups [were invited] … They [UANI] did not listen.”

Several days ago, an umbrella group of several Iranian Kurdish political parties — including the Kurdistan Democratic Party-Iran (PDK-I), Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) and two branches of the left-wing Komala party — announced it would skip the event but did not offer a reason. The event had signs for several of the groups, but their seats were empty.

Openly embracing the MEK could also put the Trump administration in an uncomfortable spot. The administration does not officially support regime change, but recently stopped ruling out the MEK as a political alternative.

Regardless of UANI’s denials, Al-Monitor spoke with several participants at the event who believed the group was involved. Tehran seems to think so as well, and announced Tuesday that it would be designating UANI a terrorist group following similar action against the hawkish Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD).

“On the one hand, the United States deceitfully speaks of compromise and negotiation,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Seyyed Abbas Mousavi said Tuesday. “And on the other hand, it organizes, finances and arms criminal and terrorist groups … and provides them with intelligence.”

Jason Brodsky, UANI’s policy director, denounced the remarks in a tweet from inside the Future of Iran conference: “First FDD is declared as a terrorist organization. Now, Iran’s regime follows by declaring UANI a terrorist organization. The regime’s war on research continues.” He later wrote on Twitter that, like Wallace, he was attending in his personal capacity.

Minutes later, UANI’s CEO invited to the stage Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s lawyer and a longtime MEK advocate.

“I call them the regime of terror,” Giuliani said to thunderous applause. “We’re here today, and we’re going to support a regime of freedom.”

Laura Rozen contributed to this report.
Julian Pecquet , Al-monitor.com

September 26, 2019 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Never knowingly engage with the Mujahideen-e Khalq

Trump, Iran’s Rouhani descend on same corner of New York but remain far apart

After months of lobbing threats and vowing military reprisals, President Trump will find himself on the same block of midtown Manhattan as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani this week at the annual U.N. General Assembly.
At times, Trump has flirted with the idea of meeting with Rouhani for a historic tete-a-tete, only to retreat to a position of imposing tougher economic sanctions.
Trump’s top advisers privately opposed such a meeting and appeared to win that debate after an attack on Saudi oil facilities Sept. 14 prompted the United States to impose more sanctions on Tehran. But Trump has not ruled anything out.
“Nothing is ever off the table completely, but I have no intention of meeting with Iran, and that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen,” the president told reporters Sunday on the South Lawn of the White House. “I’m a very flexible person.”
Even if Trump changed his mind and extended an invitation, however, it is far from clear that Rouhani would accept, something critics attribute to the Trump administration’s mixed messages.
Trump has tried to appeal to Tehran in various statements, ruling out regime change and entertaining a French plan to extend a line of credit to Iran to return to the 2015 nuclear deal the United States withdrew from last year. But the president’s hawkish advisers have taken a tougher posture: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday that Iran is “bloodthirsty and looking for war,” and his diplomats did little to help facilitate a meeting in the run-up to the General Assembly, said U.S. officials, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal operations.
On Wednesday, Pompeo is scheduled to speak at an event hosted by Iran hawk and former diplomat Mark Wallace, who has drawn criticism for including a fringe Iranian diaspora group, Mujahideen-e Khalq, or MEK, in his programming surrounding the U.N. gathering.

Until 2012, the MEK was listed as a foreign terrorist organization by the United States for allegedly killing U.S. personnel in Iran in the 1970s and for its links to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. It is largely reviled inside Iran because of its alliance with Baghdad during the Iran-Iraq war. It is participating in a dissident convention hosted by Wallace a day before Pompeo’s speech at the Iran summit.

Analysts said Pompeo’s involvement in Wallace’s event risks confusing Trump’s declaration last month that “we’re not looking for leadership change.”
“This is an extremely unwise and dangerous decision,” said Dalia Dassa Kaye, director of the center for Middle East public policy at the Rand Corp.

“The message this will send is that regime change is still in the mix despite the president’s statements to the contrary,” she said. “There’s already confusion about U.S. aims on Iran, so this will only raise more questions about what the U.S. has been trying to achieve since its withdrawal from the nuclear agreement.”

An Iran scholar scheduled to speak at the same event as Pompeo has dropped out because of the MEK’s involvement in the event Wallace is hosting Tuesday.

Suzanne Maloney of the Brookings Institution said in a statement to The Washington Post that she “would never knowingly engage with the Mujahideen-e Khalq, a cultlike terrorist organization that is despised by many Iranians.”
“Although the summit and the diaspora event will be held on separate days, the overlap in the sponsorship of the two events was too close for my comfort,” she said.
Pompeo has previously distanced himself from the group when asked about the attendance of Trump attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani and then-national security adviser John Bolton at MEK events. The group offers generous speaking fees and has cultivated close connections in Washington among Democrats and Republicans, including to former senator Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) and former Vermont governor Howard Dean (D).
“Let’s not beat around the bush,” Pompeo reportedly said during a meeting with Iranian American leaders in April. “Ambassador Bolton spoke at an MEK rally. President Trump and I have not.”
A senior State Department official dismissed the concerns about the MEK’s participation in Wallace’s event, saying, “Have you looked at the people attending the U.N.?”

When asked about his decision to include the MEK, a spokesman for Wallace said he “decided early on that the convention will not discriminate or make value judgments on participation.”

His spokesman, Joshua Silberberg, added that Wallace’s organization, United Against Nuclear Iran, “admires Suzanne Maloney and respects her decision about participating in the Iran summit on Wednesday, which is an unrelated event.”
Ali Safavi, an official with the National Council of Resistance of Iran, which speaks for the MEK, said Maloney “has no credibility whatsoever to comment on the MEK.”
As diplomats from around the world streamed into New York for the United Nations’ 74th annual General Assembly, Pompeo and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif continued to trade barbs.
Pompeo, going further than Trump in assigning blame for the attack on Saudi Arabia, said, “This was an attack by Iran on the world.”
“We’re looking for a diplomatic resolution to this, unlike the Iranians,” he told CBS.
Unlike Pompeo, Trump has not directly blamed the country for the assault, saying last week that “as soon as we find out definitively, we’ll let you know.”

Trump did, however, approve new sanctions on Iran’s state bank Friday and signed off on a new deployment of U.S. troops to the Middle East to enhance Saudi Arabia’s air defenses.
With those moves, Iran’s foreign minister told reporters that Trump “knowingly or unknowingly on Friday closed the door to negotiations.”
“I think it’s all going the wrong direction in addressing this issue,” Zarif told CBS on Sunday. “I don’t think this type of posturing helps.”
U.S. officials said the Trump administration would try to build a coalition to denounce Iran’s activities in the Middle East this week. Rebels in Yemen, known as Houthis, took responsibility for the strike on Saudi oil facilities, but Pompeo and Saudi Arabia have said the militants do not possess the type of drone and cruise missile weaponry used in the attack. Even some Democrats reluctant to embrace Trump’s messaging have rejected Iran’s denial of involvement, including former secretary of state John F. Kerry, who said Iran was responsible “one way or the other.”
In an acknowledgment of the worsening tensions, France’s top diplomat, who has tried to broker a meeting between Rouhani and Trump, said it was now more important to de-escalate the “dangerous” situation rather than set up a meeting between the two governments.
“What is at stake during this week is whether or not we can carry on with this de-escalation process,” Jean-Yves Le Drian said.
Carol Morello contributed to this report.
John Hudson,

September 25, 2019 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

MEK’s paid speakers,”to be or not to be”

The latest news on US politics included a bad one for the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi). President Trump fired one of the most vocal supporters of the MEK, his national security advisor John Bolton because he”disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration”.

Bolton is notoriously known for his warmongering attitudes, especially, against Iran. He is well known for his op-ed in the New York Times in 2015, headlined:”To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran.”[1]
This extremely anti-Iran stance makes him sexy enough to get in bed with the MEK. That’s why after his departure from the White House all reports and analysis point out to his many appearances in the MEK’s events as a paid speaker.
“One group that is no doubt devastated by Bolton’s departure is the MEK — the Iranian exile group that wants regime change in Tehran, by force if necessary, and has paid Bolton & Rudy Giuliani to make speeches”, tweeted Edward Wong of the New York Times. [2]
Barbara Slavin, director of the Future of Iran Initiative at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank, welcomed Bolton’s departure from the administration.”Bolton is an absolutist; it’s all or nothing, black and white. He’s not very good at step-by-step or incremental agreements, and those are the only kinds of agreements that are realistic with adversaries,”Slavin told the Middle East Eye.”So I think he’s been a major impediment to diplomacy. He is a war-monger. He’s somebody who’s advocated for bombing Iran, as recently as this past summer, and he has ties with the Mujahideen-e Khalq, an Islamo-fascist cult. So I’m glad he’s out.”[3]
Jason Rezaian of the Washington Post states,”His absence also means that the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK), a reviled Iranian opposition group that long lived on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist groups, no longer has a powerful ally in the White House.”[4]
Rezaian truly suggests that the MEK’s money does mean more to Bolton compared with its almost no support among Iranians.”The MEK can claim no popular support, and among Iranians of nearly all political orientations, inside the country and in the diaspora, it was Bolton’s paid alliance with the cult-like group that made him such an odious character,”he writes. [5]
Daniel Larison of the American Conservative who had previously warned about Bolton’s paid sponsorship for the MEK, a few months earlier, in June, denounced Bolton’s policy towards Iran due to his notorious links with the Cult of Rajavi.”Bolton’s long relationship with the MEK discredits everything he has to say about Iran,”he wrote.”No one that has praised this cult as a potential replacement for the Iranian government should have anything to do with U.S. policymaking at any level, much less at the White House. No one foolish or fanatical enough to side with this cult should be entrusted with any government position.”[6]
Larison strictly warned about the MEK-Bolton dirty connections.”Bolton’s ties to the MEK should be mentioned in every story that reports on him and the administration’s Iran policy, but unfortunately they are only rarely included in media coverage,”he stated. [7]
“It is unacceptable for a top government official responsible for shaping U.S. foreign policy to have been the paid shill of this awful organization that previously killed Americans,”Larison continued.”It is wrong for an official with ties to the MEK to be influencing decisions on Iran policy. There are many reasons why Bolton should be fired, and this is right at the top of the list.”[8]
On September 10th, after Bolton’s departure, Daniel Larison published an article on The American Conservative, titled”Good Riddance, Bolton”in which he expresses his pleasure to the”good news”. According to the senior editor of TAC, as far as Bolton is not a member of the administration his ardent support for the MEK is not dangerous for the region.”He should never have been hired, but at least he is out of government. Now he can go shill for the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) full-time,”Larison suggests. [9]
Definitely, the Saudi funded establishment of the Mujahedin Khalq is able to buy the support of any warmonger figure in the US political scene but as far as the group is despised by the Iranian nation, its paid sponsors are not capable of running their agenda. To be or not to be in the US administration team will not make Bolton a proper person to run the MEK’s agenda. The MEK can keep on expending dollars to buy the support of American high profiles. However the will and determination of the Iranian nation is certainly against the will of the longtime traitors who fought alongside Saddam Hussein against their country fellow men and opened fire against innocent civilians in the Iranian cities.
By Mazda Parsi

References:
[1] Bolton, John, To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran, The New York Times, March 25, 2019.
[2] Abshenass, Emad, ‘I Rule the White House’: Will Bolton’s ouster help Trump facilitate US-Iran negotiations?, United World Data, September 15th, 2019.
[3] Middle East Eye, Trump sacks national security adviser John Bolton, September 10, 2019.
[4] Rezaian, Jason, Bolton’s departure will fundamentally alter Trump’s Iran policy, The Washington Post, September 10, 2019.
[5] ibid
[6] Larison, Daniel, Bolton’s Relationship with the MEK Is a Scandal, The American Conservative, June 6th, 2019.
[7] ibid
[9] Larison, Daniel, Good Riddance, Bolton, The American Conservative, September 10th, 2019.

September 24, 2019 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Would you support a Marxist, Jihadist cult?

WHO is the Marxist, Jihadist Cult That Is Fooling MAGA On Iran Policy?
You are watching a compilation of videos about the MEK, a Marxist,Jihadist cult supported by politicians across the political spectrum , Democrats and Republicans.
Democrats like Jefferey Epstein associate Bill Richardson and Sen. Joe Liberman support the MEK.

https://dlb.nejatngo.org/Media/Documentary/Populist_Marxist_Cult.mp4

September 23, 2019 0 comments

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 261

++ MEK former Ghorban Ali Hossein Nejad – an Arabic speaker and former translator for Massoud Rajavi – writes that he has specific news concerning the death of Massoud Rajavi. His Arab sources have confirmed that after disappearing in 2003, Massoud Rajavi was transferred to Saudi Arabia, but once he reached there he died. That’s why Prince Turki announced his death. Hossein Nejad expands on this news to say that although MEK accept he is dead by placing his picture among their martyrs, as a cult, the leaders don’t want to announce his death to the rank and file members. In response to this news, some Farsi and Arabic outlets have written biographies of Rajavi detailing what he did until he died.
++ Commentators’ reactions to the MEK’s anniversary celebration of the founders of the MEK say ‘how ridiculous it is to attach yourselves to the founders as they have nothing to do with what you are now. You are now mercenary force for Israel, Saudi and the US. The reason you can’t move beyond your own past is to do with internal problems not for commemorative reasons. Not a single thing you say has any correspondence with the past.’ Javad Firouzmand from Arya Association in Paris has broadcast an in-depth video which starts with the original ideology of the MEK and shows how year after year Rajavi changed it to suit his agenda, until it became what it is now, the false front of a mercenary force. According to Firouzmand this path charts how MEK’s obedience to orders from foreign sponsors compelled them to change.
++ Reactions to John Bolton’s removal have continued. One thread of news concerns the MEK hosting the President of Albania in Camp Ashraf 3 in Albania. This attracted little interest in spite of their over publicising it on their sites. This is because the President of Albania is essentially a nobody – the leader of the opposition with no powers. It was clear to observers that he had been tasked by the CIA to visit the camp to help change the mood inside among the members. The members are demoralised and want to leave. The people inside Camp Ashraf say they are forced to stay regardless of Bolton or not because they have no alternatives. They admit they are slaves.

In English:
++ Media mentions of the MEK mostly associate the group with the Trump administration’s extremist stance toward Iran. That is, the MEK constantly talk about regime change; which makes them ‘flavor of the month’ for all regime change pundits in the US, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the UK. Their presence in the Balkans is linked to Daesh and a possible war against Iran, which would result in the crowning of Maryam Rajavi as the country’s leader. This could be a miscalculation apparently. Nobody seems to know since America has no real expertise on Iran at all.
The MEK is said to have the ear of the White House. So, it was a devastating blow to Maryam Rajavi when her buddy John Bolton was removed from his position as national security advisor. She need not have worried since Mike Pompeo was happy to gather up the reins of mission impossible ‘maximum pressure’.
Now that the US and Iran are back to the brink of war Rajavi might feel she can breathe easy again. Not so fast. The disintegration of her political cult will come from within. The MEK in Albania are on the verge of mutiny. All those lies have come back to haunt. After all, didn’t John Bolton promise they would be celebrating in Tehran by April this year.
September 20, 2019

September 22, 2019 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

MEK’s Heshamt Alavi Ex. of Washington’s Ignorant Iran Experts

Ignorant Iran ‘experts’ just the beginning of Washington’s foreign policy troubles

An explosive essay calling out the lack of legitimate expertise about Iran ought to be a wake-up call for the US foreign policy field. Yet the same problem also affects Washington’s analysis of Russia, China and many other places.
Imagine a field of study in which less than a third of the experts had related doctorates, half of them could not read, speak or write the language required, and just as many have never set foot inside the relevant country. Preposterous, you might say – yet scientific observation has shown that this is precisely what the US expertise on Iran looks like, according to an essay by political anthropologist Negar Razavi, recently published in the journal Jadaliyya.

Yes precisely @nargesbajoghli. This is a good opportunity for DC folks who took offense at my @jadaliyya piece on #Iran expertise to do what experts **SHOULD** be doing: Raise questions publicly abt evidence/agenda behind this problematic trope/repeatedly disproven claim. https://t.co/9AixPnIaLP
— Negar Razavi (@razaraz) September 14, 2019

Razavi describes the think-tank culture of DC as “a wider system of knowledge production in Washington – one which has consistently rewarded ungrounded, ideologically driven assessments of the Islamic Republic at the expense of qualified, in-depth, and evidence-based analysis.”
This is her conclusion after two years of “ethnographic fieldwork” in the US capital, attending hundreds of events, following the writings and presentations of think-tank experts, and interviewing over 180 people between 2014 and 2016. In other words, this was a serious academic study.
This culture of “expert impunity” when it comes to Iran has combined with historical and contemporary US grievances against Tehran to produce the current policy of confrontation, in which allegations are treated as unquestioned facts while any nuanced assessments are dismissed as the work of “regime apologists,” according to Razavi.

Your occasional reminder that a couple of years ago @CNN had a contracted Russia analyst who, by all accounts, has never been to Russia and can’t speak any Russian. https://t.co/tH2eFIjAbX
— Bryan MacDonald (@27khv) September 16, 2019

If this sounds familiar, that’s because the problem is not limited to Iran. Though Razavi focused exclusively on the state of Iran expertise, her assessment applies in equal measure to the self-styled experts on Venezuela, or Russia, or China, or the Balkans…

The examples are legion. Razavi herself mentions (though not by name) “Heshmat Alavi,” a supposed expert on Iran who recently turned out to be a construct – an online persona operated by the Iranian exile group Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK). This is an outfit that seeks regime change in Tehran, and has been endorsed by former National Security Advisor John Bolton and President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

Gordon Chang, who predicted the “coming collapse of China” in a 2001 book, has been embraced by CNN and Fox News alike as an expert on Beijing – despite the obvious failure of his prediction to actually materialize. Likewise, Swedish economic Anders Aslund has heralded the demise of Russia since 2000 – and cashed in his “expertise” with the Atlantic Council and the governments of Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan and the Baltic states.
Also on rt.com Russia ‘expert’ says Ukraine economy doing great, citing mail-order bride blog
Then there was the never-ending parade of “Russia experts” on cable news shows helping cultivate and propagate the hoax of President Donad Trump’s “Russian collusion” over the past three years, only to see the Mueller Report conclusively quash their fabrications. Have there been apologies? Of course not. As Razavi points out, being an “expert” in DC means never having to admit wrongdoing.
Her essay reveals how actual experts and scholars – who warned against things like the 2003 invasion of Iraq or ‘Russiagate’ – have been been sidelined or smeared time and again, while the think-tank factories churned out false expertise on cable channels and social media. Their takes would then find their way into official papers at the State Department and the Pentagon, morphing along the way into facts that “everybody knows” and no one is allowed to question.
The result of this unholy alliance of tanks and think-tanks has been decades of mis-shapen US foreign policy, with arguably disastrous results – from trillions in squandered treasure to millions of deaths around the world.
Nebojsa Malic, senior writer at RT

September 22, 2019 0 comments

Duplicity of the MEK nature

My Day With the MEK

The People’s Mujahedin of Iran- a ‘controversial’ political-militant organisation have ended up living in a compound just miles from Tirana, Albania. One day I was invited to attend a “human rights conference” there. Not knowing much about them and as a curious journalist, I accepted and set off, not having any idea of what to expect.

Located around 30 minutes drive from Tirana, the MEK compound is on the outskirts of the village of Manza. Rumour has it that the locals are not overly happy about their presence there, but the fact that the compound provides work for a number of them is enough to keep them at bay.

At the entrance to the camp was a carpark where a number of private guards with automatic weapons stood around chainsmoking with their guns slung over their shoulders. Two large gold-coloured lions flanked the gateway where a couple of MEK members sit, stopping anyone that tries to enter.

As the minibus pulled into the entrance, the private guards in their brown uniforms approached the vehicle with mirrors on the end of long metal poles. They spoke with the driver before using the mirrors to check the underneath of the vehicle for, what I assume, was bombs or similar devices. After getting the all-clear, we passed through the gate and disembarked in a small car park.

Ahead of us was along a road that disappeared over the top of the hillside. Iranian flags lined the route and a large, stone archway sat in the middle of the road with an even bigger flag hanging from it. To the right of the arch was a small tent where a different private security firm had set up scanners, metal detectors, and a station for searching everyone that wished to enter, Segregated into male and female stations, our bags were searched, we were patted down and scanned, and also made to pass through a scanner.

The security guard confiscated my lipstick, face powder, cigarettes, and lighter and put them in a plastic bag, advising me I could collect them afterwards. They tried to confiscate my mobile phone as well, but I argued that having a one-month-old daughter at home, I needed to be contactable. A male MEK member was called over and after pleading my case, I was allowed to take my phone inside on the condition I switched off the internet (I didn’t).

It was at this point that I began to feel nervous. The level of security was incredibly high, the searches were more thorough than at an airport, and I was concerned at the attempt to take my phone, as well as the temporary confiscation of something so seemingly harmless as a lipstick.

As I looked around, I also noticed the dress code that applied to everyone except the staff of the two separate private security firms.

I was greeted by a number of smiling, incredibly friendly women that shook my hand, kissed my cheeks and thanked me for attending. The majority of them were dressed in navy blue suits with burgundy hijabs, with no makeup and modest shoes. I noticed a small number of women who appeared to be much older than the others and assuming positions of more responsibility, wearing head to toe olive green- a suit with a matching hijab. The men were dressed in suits with shirts and no tie- they all seemed to have moustaches. Not one person was under 50 years old.

From the security checkpoint, we were herded into minibusses dependent on nationality and who invited us, and we started our descent into the “city”.

As we passed over the top of the hill, rows and rows of white, single-story cabins appeared below us. Each road we took had its own street name and each row of housing was complete with plants and flowers planted outside and even bicycles propped up, ready for use. The place was immaculate- little box houses on pristine streets and a small artificial river running through the centre. On what appears to be the main boulevard, Iranian flags lined the way, with a large memorial to those MEK members who lost their lives at one end, and what appears to be a sort of city centre at the other.

We pulled off the main boulevard and disembarked outside what looked like a large aircraft hangar. Guarding several entrances were more private security guards and more men with moustaches. As we file into the building, I had no idea what was waiting for me inside.

The room was vast- similar to an industrial warehouse in size and dimensions. Inside were perhaps 3000 people in seats stretching as far as the eye coul see. To the left of me was a stage, cordoned off and supervised by security guards. This stage was kitted out with an expensive-looking set including large screens with graphics of video footage of the MEK struggle interspersed with images of their leader Maryam Rajavi and the Iranian flag. A podium stood on the stage, next to a flagpole and flag, and in front of the words “FREE IRAN”.

Upbeat and patriotic sounding music pumped from the speakers and filled the room, drowning out the sound of delegates as they make their way to their seats. In the centre of the room were two columns of seating, male MEK members on one side, female MEK members on the other, completely segregated and each in their strict dress code, including hijabs for women. Again, no one was under the age of 50.

On the far right hand and left hand sides of these seating zones, sat the international delegates, segregated by nationality. Everyone was handed a headset and told to tune in to a particular frequency that would pick up the translations coming live from a line of translation booths on the right hand side of the room.

At the front of the room, the VIPs were sat in rows with tables in front of them, displaying the name and country of each delegate. I noticed the US, UK, France, Germany, and Saudi Arabia were all represented by between one and five individuals. They included politicians, ex-politicians and ex-security and military personnel. I was told that there were representatives from 47 countries present.

Large booms swung over head, each with a camera attached to it filming the crowd from a variety of angles. This was an expensive set up, reminiscent of a large scale TV studio.

The number of people in the room was quite staggering and to see the rows of people seated at the far end, I had to squint. Asides from the thousands that were seated, there were perhaps a hundred uniformed and hijabi wearing women scuttling around, seating people and handing out headsets. They were under the direction of a few men in suits and were amongst over 100 security guards.

As I waited to be seated, the chanting started and thousands of Iranian flags started being waved enthusiastically as the crowd got to their feet. The chanting and flag waving occured for several minutes, before they sat back down again- a pattern that repeated countless times throughout the event.

On my own at this point, I enquired as to where I should sit. Confusion ensues as I explain that I am English yet living in Albania and I was told to wait whilst they discussed what to do with me.

I was then approached by an older male MEK member holding a walkie-talkie who asked me who I was and what I was doing. I explained again and made the mistake of saying I am a journalist whilst flashing my press card. At this point, he became angry and said, “who the hell told you to be here?” I replied that I had been invited and that some of the ladies had told me to wait here whilst they decided where to seat me. He replied angrily “these ladies know nothing, I am in charge here”.

At this point, I became unhappy at being shouted at and I asked him to lower his voice and not to treat a guest in this manner. He walked off and eventually I was seated by a woman in a hijab, in the section for Albanians.

It was then, as I looked around I noticed that there were no other journalists present as I could not see any TV crews, no other people with press cards, no journalists I recognised, and I realised I hadn’t seen any media vans or cars in the car park. There was only the expensive video cameras and a couple of photographers who I believed were MEK members.

Then the show began.

MEK leader, Maryam Rajavi took to the stage amidst triumphant music, glitter cannons spitting out gold confetti into the audience, and the euphoric chants, flag-waving, and fist-pumping in perfect synchronicity of the uniformed, segregated, Iranian audience members.

Dressed in turquoise silk with a matching hijab, Rajavi smiled as she spoke, pausing only to enjoy the chanting and adoration from her followers. She captivated the crowd as she spoke of women’s rights, gender equality, democracy, human rights, and an end to the mullahs and ayatollah. To see the way that the crowd reacted to her was really something fascinating- they hung on every world, and jumped to their feet many times to chant and wave their flags ecstatically.

Following Rajavi’s rousing speech, other speakers took to the floor. They included Trump’s lawyer and ex- Mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani (who has attended 11 such conferences, reportedly for a hefty fee) , former Democratic senator Joe Lieberman, Columbian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, former US Marine Corps Commander General James Conway, Lincoln Bloomfield, and British MP Matthew Offord.

They referred to “the regime of terror”, the “murderers in Tehran”, and called for the immediate overthrow of the current Iranian government. MEK were called “freedom fighters” and hailed as the only solution to the current situation in Iran.

Guiliani also said that “European governments must stop supporting regimes that fund terrorism” calling for and end to any trade with Iran, stating that it funds “mass murderers”.

He also commented on the way that the compound had sprung up in just two years adding “if we tried to do this in New York, it would take 15 years and launch 14 corruption investigations.”

Addressing the allegations that MEK is a cult, he stated “maybe [these people] they forgot about honour and decency, human rights. This is a decent organisaton. A group we can support.”

Each speech was broken up by periods of coordinated chanting and flag-waving with each outburst as frenetic and enthusiastic as the one before.

I sat there for around two or three hours, not really sure what was going on or what the purpose of the event was. Feeling a little on edge, I got up from my seat and made my way to the exit. As I walked towards where I had disembarked the minibus, the woman who invited me called my name and came running over to me and presented me with a box of sweets and fruit. She asked me who I worked for and what I wrote (which was odd because I had never told her) and invited me to come back to the compound another time to discuss their work more.

I said my goodbyes and headed back to the entrance, passed the armed guards and moustachioed MEK members, and went back to Tirana.

Over the next few days, my contact and I exchanged a few messages where I said I would be interested in “one day” returning to find out more. She then proceeded to call me around 15 times, even when I told her I was not available ( I didn’t answer) and even from different phone numbers. I then politely but firmly declined any invitations and that was the last I heard from my friend at MEK.

Alice Taylor, The Balkanista,

September 21, 2019 0 comments

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