Page 71 – Nejat Society

Saudi Arabia funds Iran International TV

Since the beginning of Al Salman’s reign over Saudi Arabia in 2015, the country has been seeking to establish media networks to hurt countries opposing its policies in the region.

Saudi Arabia which sees Iran as the key factor in its failures in the region from Syria and Iraq to Yemen has been using all tools to hurt Iran since 2015, according to Iranian official newspaper “Iran”.

Therefore, various media outlets and news networks with a fully anti-Iran approach were launched in different countries after 2016, from which Iran International is an example.

Iran International TV

Iran International is a network formed by Saudi Arabia in 2017 in London and adopts a completely anti-Iran approach.

Owner of Volant Media Ltd which runs Iran International is a Saudi man, named Adel Al-Abdulkarim.

Al-Abdulkarim has a long record of cooperation with individuals and companies in Saudi media and newspapers.

One of the staff members of Iran International has revealed that the network’s stories are influenced by some anonymous investors.

According to the British newspaper The Guardian, Saudi Arabia has provided a 250-million-dollar fund for Iran International in 2018.

The British weekly The Economist revealed that the investors of Iran International are Saudi nationals.

Also, the American newspaper the Wall Street Journal reported that individuals in Saudi Arabia have established and funded Iran International in order to compete against Iran’s influence in the region.

The Guardian says that former royal advisor Saud al-Qahtani who was fired after the 2018 murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is one of the under-the-curtain financial supporters of Iran International.

“… Saudi Arabia shows zero tolerance for criticism of its absolute monarchy, as underlined by Khashoggi’s murder, it is setting up media organizations in other languages promoting free speech, particularly about Iran,” the Guardian has reported.

Massoud Khodabandeh, former member of Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO), disclosed some issues about the anti-Iran news network in an interview about two months ago.

According to Khodabandeh, Iran International is not an unknown network because its owner and its company had already been broadcasting the MKO programs.

Iran International has been established to be the MKO language, he noted, adding that the MKO session was covered live through Iran International two years ago.

For years ago, Iran International gave its tribune as an amateur move to the terrorist group who killed people in southwestern Iranian city of Ahvaz in September 2018.

Although Iran International claims that it has no links with Saudis, its financial resources reveal that Saudi Arabia financially supports the network to follow Saudi regional policies.

October 22, 2022 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Fanatical to the Point of Suicide; Mujahedin-e Khalq

The day after the police operation against the People’s Mojahedin in the Paris suburbs, European and world public opinion were shocked to discover individuals voluntarily turning themes into human torches.
What level of fanaticism could push seemingly sane and healthy people to such extremes? Moreover, some of the “spectators” tried lock the access of rescue services which could have saved the victims’ lives. The French judicial system could only note the facts prevent any repetition.

‘Two Iranians suspected of preventing the intervention of rescuers while a woman was immolating herself in front of DST headquarters in Paris on Wednesday will be brought before an instructional magistrate for their a criminal investigation, judicial sources made known on Friday.

The prosecutor’s office stated that very day a criminal enquiry possible ‘obstruction of rescue services’ and ‘provocation to suicide’. It will soon demand an arrest warrant. The crime of obstructing rescue efforts can be punished with up to 7 years in prison.

The two prisoners bought 8 litres of petrol in a service station in rue Nelaton, near the DST HQ. They then provided it to an Iranian woman who died yesterday in the specialized military hospital for burns, Percy, in Clamart (Hauts-de-Seine), the same source added. One of them was an obstacle to rescue workers when they tried save the 44 year old victim, while the other was in possession of the victim’s blouse and papers, judicial sources emphasized.

The two Iranians were questioned by police Tuesday morning during the operation against the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran. They were released during the evening, the judicial sources said.
One Iranian woman, arrested and questioned on Wednesday was in possession of gasoline-filled bottles and a letter explaining her intention to commit suicide. She was freed, she stated”.

photo: The raid of the MEK’s Paris compound in 2003, which prompted acts of self-immolation by some of its members.

This is the point to begin asking some difficult questions. For many years, specialists on international terrorism, like the experts on post-revolutionary Iran, have been aware of the sectarian and violent nature of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran. Numerous journalists have had a bone to pick with their propaganda. Those who gave space to the Movement’s “deserters” or who expressed the slightest criticism were violently denounced as agents of Teheran, bought by the regime. But, in that Summer of 2003, reality hit.
Tom Heneghan of the British press agency, Reuters, asked himself if he was watching a sect in full collapse:
“The images of men and women spraying themselves with petrol before setting themselves on fire in the streets of several European capitals, has shed dramatic light on the last days of the main armed opposition to the Teheran regime.

Since Tuesday, several supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) have tried to immolate themselves in Paris, London, Rome and Berne.
A woman in her forties has succumbed to her wounds Thursday night in the Paris region after immolating herself the previous day to denounce the intervention of French police against Maryam Rajavi — the person whom the Iranian opposition want one day to become President of Iran.

Successive student demonstrations in the streets of Teheran and the growing pressure of the American authorities on the Iranian regime, summoned to explain its nuclear programme, could have led the Mojahedin to believe that the time had come to overthrow the authorities they have been fighting for thirty years.
However in just a few weeks, the organization has seen its military installations dismantled in Iraq, its arsenal seized by the Americans and its HIQ in Auvers-sur- Oise, North of Paris, searched and closed down by the French police.

For many specialists on Iran, these images of men and women in flames, writhing in pain have shown the true nature of the PMOI: a sect based on the cult of personality of Maryam Rajavi and her husband, Massoud, one of the movement’s founders.

‘It’s a sect,’ says Ali Ansari, expert on Iranian affairs at Britain’s Durham University.
‘Their militants are strangely, passionately loyal to this couple. The now realise who they are,’ he adds.
‘My only hope, is that, in the event of a revolution, we won’t have the People’s Mojahedin in their place,’ confides a young Iranian interviewed in Teheran: ‘They’re worse than the mullahs’.

From the book: Autopsy of an ideological drift

October 19, 2022 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Maryam Rajavi keeps her cyber army under systematic monitoring

Since the disarmament of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization by the US military in 2003, the group has been focused on a cyber warfare against the Iranian government. The war includes cyber attacks on computer systems and a disinformation campaign based on fake accounts in social media. The rank and file of Maryam Rajavi are actually soldiers of the cyber army that once was the actual army of Rajavi to launch terrorist acts. In the cult-like structure of Rajavi’s army, members are always under supervision by different layers of the hierarchy.

In 2013, when the group was relocated in Albania, it started building its headquarters in Manez, North of Tirana. The group leaders built equipped halls with hundreds of computer systems connected to the Internet in order to launch fake news. In April, 2021, Facebook removed hundreds of fake accounts linked to the MEK’s “troll farm” in Albania. According to the Associated Press, “the accounts posted content critical of Iran’s government and supportive of Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, a dissident group known as MEK. In many cases, the Facebook and Instagram accounts used fake profile names and photos.”

MEK members working in the ‘Twitter troll factory’ in Manez Camp, Albania

However, the computer halls of the MEK’s troll farm are potential places to motivate members to defect the group regarding that members of the MEK are not allowed to have any access to the outside world. Mostafa Beheshti a recently defected member of the group speaks of the amplified monitoring on busy work days, like these days that protests go on in the streets of Iran and MEK agents are more active to launch misinformation about the actual protests high jacking the true demand of Iranian protesters.

“Large screens are hung on the wall of each computer hall,” Mostafa Beheshti told in interview with the Association for the Support of Iranian Living in Albania (ASILA). “The screens are connected to each persons’ computer. Commanders in the command room, security room and the room of top command of security of Camp Ashraf are able to monitor each member’s activities on his or her PC.”

Mostafa Beheshti in an interview with ASILA head

According to the testimonies of Mostafa, whenever there is an increase in the protests in Iran, security check and monitoring over members are eventually increased. “They are afraid that members use an opportunity and contact their families outside the camp. They are also afraid of any penetration in their group. They do not want any one from the outside world to know about their internal affairs.” However, there are always dissidents in the group who use various tricks to bypass the commanders’ monitoring system. cellphones do not have SIM cards
“At the time of protests, when connections rise, commanders confiscate members’ tablets or cellphones although their cellphones do not have any SIM cards,” Mostafa recounts. He states that the MEK’s rank and file are not allowed to use smartphones. He witnessed that the group supervisors would destroy the SIM card tray to prevent members from using it.

“The MEK leaders are obsessed with power in Iran but they are never representative of Iranians’ aspirations,” he told.

October 17, 2022 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

British sociologist sees hands of foreign terrorists in Iran unrest

The recent unrest in Iran has its roots in foreign terrorist organizations’ attempt to provoke people to pursue their own agenda, which is overthrowing the political establishment, a British sociologist believes.

David Miller told IRNA on Monday that some foreign elements who pursue their own geopolitical agendas fanned the flame of the recent protests in Iran to pursue a regime change policy.

“The first key thing is that the premise for the protests such as they are, has been a false story about the cause of death of a young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini,” he said, adding, “It was said by certain sources that she was killed or murdered by the police, which isn’t the cause for death.”

British sociologist; David Miller

As to the scenario made by foreign forces to wreak havoc in Iran, Miller noted that it was invented by sources who had a reason to invent such things, which is that they are connected to entities with specific geopolitical interests, especially the US, the Zionists, and the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MKO).

According to the expert, the reason that sparked the situation was a “deception,” which was invented because of geopolitical objectives.

You can see that some of the people are agents of foreign powers and agencies like the foundation of George Soros, which is dedicated to regime change in Iran, he noted.

The British thinker also stipulated, “If these were women’s rights demonstrations simply over the question of the compulsory hijab or similar issues; then, we would not have been seeing immediate attacks, including killings of police officers and Basiji, we would not have seen the systematic attempt to target ambulances, which of course are not for woman’s rights in Iran.”

He also referred to “the attacks on IRGC personnel,” adding, “That is not the act of a woman’s rights demonstration, that is the act of a foreign terrorist organization.”

“This is a clear sign, this is not a kind of internal opposition,” he said, arguing that “the internal opposition is not allowed to carry gun” and “engage in armed attacks on state personnel.”

Comparing the incident in Iran with the case of Chris Caba, 24-year-old, who was shot dead by armed police in Streatham Hill, the UK, Miller said that the African-British citizen’s death sparked protests, but mainstream media tried to introduce the protests as participation in mourning for Queen Elizabeth, while they were demanding justice for the murder case.

“There is a desperate need for Russia, for China, for Iran, and other countries to develop their own social media infrastructure,” he said, arguing that the existing social media platforms are instruments for Western appearance.

October 15, 2022 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Ask the MEK, how to make a violent insurgent out of a normal protester

Civil protests in Iran often ends with the arrest of some MEK-affiliated insurgents who have committed acts of violence in the scenes of peaceful protests. In recent protests in Iran that was sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a number of arrested ones turned out to have been manipulated by the troll farm of the Mujahedin Khalq. The insurgents were arrested under the accusation of spreading propaganda to incite riots and providing incendiary material to demonstrators, following orders from members of the group in Camp Ashraf 3, Manza, Albania.

The MEK’s online manipulation operation runs in the Persian-language social networks. Mohammad Atabay who defected the MEK last month was one of the soldiers of the MEK’s cyber army. He recounts his experience of working on social media to recruit insurgents. The recruited insurgents would be those who eventually set government or religious buildings, banks and traffic lights on fire, in Iran.

According to Atabay, the MEK’s on-line manipulation agents have a detailed instruction to hunt their young victims in social media. They have fake IDs, usually as young as their victims. “I was always 30 years old in the social media,” says Atabay who is 55 right now and worked in the MEK troll farm from 2016 until summer of 2022.

Hamid Atabay; the MEK former member interviewed by the head of ASILA

The MEK recruiter on the Internet never reveals that he is a member of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran. He knows that the group is widely detested in Iran. Instead, he tries to text him in private offering sympathy to him for his problems inside Iran. He keeps on socializing until he wins the victim’s trust.
“The next step is sending a news of MEK-led activities in Iran, published in the MEK’s TV channel,” Atabay explains. “This phase was significant because you could find out the person would say ‘yes’ or ‘no’.”
Based on testimonies of this recently defected member of the Cult of Rajavi, most people did not know the MEK and its TV. “Very few people would welcome the MEK-made video,” he says. “The majority of people would say ‘no’ after they came to know who the MEK are.”

During his six years of working in the MEK’s troll farm, Atabay could only win the trust of one person who was “naive” enough to get in to the trap of the MEK. The next phases of the recruitment process are managed by the commanders who have been previously aware of what was going on each and every PC of the rank and file working in the on-line army.

Atabay recalls that the recruited person would be asked to hang the photos of the MEK leaders in the streets of the cities in Iran, take a video and send it to the recruiter in exchange for a small amount of money. These manipulated insurgents would be charged with higher fees if they set a building or the pictures of Iranian authorities on fire.

As a former soldier of the MEK’s cyber army, Hamid Atabay asks Iranian youth and teenagers to be careful about the group fraudulent recruiters in social media. He addresses the Iranian protesters: “I recognize your right to protest but I warn you about the threat of the Cult of Rajavi. The MEK is never a patriot entity. Rajavi does not belong to Iran.”

October 11, 2022 0 comments

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

Parviz Ahmadi tortured to death in the MEK prison, Eyewitness

Abbas Sadeghinejad who escaped the Camp Ashraf on June 20, 2002, was one of the first defectors of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization to testify about the murder of group members under torture and violence by the leaders. He witnessed the death of Parviz Ahmadi and Ghorban Ali Torabi during the weeks he was jailed in the prison of Camp Ashraf, Iraq.

Leaders of the MEK are accused of committing violence against their members. According to the rulings of the group, the rank and file have to obey the absolute power of the leaders, Massoud and Maryam Rajavi. Disobedience to leaders, criticizing their approaches and expressing your willingness to leave the Cult of Rajavi qualifies you for this label: “spy of Iranian regime” and therefore you deserve the most horrific punishments.

https://dlb.nejatngo.org/Media/Interview/Sadeghinejad-Ahmadi-1.mp4

To download the video file click here

During the 1994 to 1995, hundreds of members who had been deceived by MEK recruiters or simply did not agree with the group’s ideology any more, expressed their dissent. The Cult of Rajavi reacted with a process of suppression called “security clearance”.

A large number of defectors of the MEK have so far testified about what they endured in the MEK’s prisons in Camp Ashraf during security clearances. They also gave testimonies on what they witnessed in the interrogation rooms, prison cells and solitary confinements. In March 2005, Human Rights Watch published a report on the MEK titled “No Exit, Human Rights Abuses Inside the MKO Camps”. The report was based on various interviews with former members of the group.

Human Rights Watch interviewed four witnesses who were detained during the security clearances of 1994-1995 because “they were suspected by the MKO of harboring dissident views”. Based on the HRW’s report, page 16 and 17, “Ali Ghasghavi, Alireza Mir Asgari, Ali Akbari, and Abbas Sadeghinejad were severely tortured, subjected to harsh interrogation techniques and forced to sign false confessions stating their links to Iranian intelligence agents.”

According to the reports, Abbas Sadeghinejad, Ali Ghashghavi, and Alireza Mir Asgari witnessed the death of Parviz Ahmadi in February 1995 inside an internal MKO prison in Iraq. The three shared a prison cell during the security clearance arrests in February 1995. Parviz Ahmadi was a dissident member who was held in the same cell.
Abbas Sadeghinezhad, who was also present in the cell, was interviewed by HRW by telephone, on February 14, 2005. He recalled the final moments of Parviz Ahmadi’s life: “The prison door opened, and a prisoner was thrown into the cell. He fell on his face. At first, we didn’t recognize him. He was beaten up severely. We turned him around; it was Parviz Ahmadi taken for interrogations just a few hours before. Ahmadi was a unit commander. His bones were broken all over, his legs were inflamed; he was falling into a coma. We tried to help him but after only ten minutes he died as I was holding his head on my lap. The prison guard opened the door and pulled Ahmadi’s lifeless body out.”

Sadeghinejad also shared his testimony in a documentary made by another ex-member, Milad Aryaiee, in 2007. He recounts the moments of Parviz Ahmadi’s passing away in the MEK’s prison after he was brought to the cell with a bruised swollen body.

Abbas Sadeghinejad told Human Rights Watch that he had earlier witnessed the death of another prisoner, Ghorbanali Torabi, after Torabi was returned from an interrogation session to a prison cell.

October 10, 2022 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

IRAN. Behind the protests of the veil, the terrorism of the Mojahedin-e Khalq

The death of the young Kurdish girl Mahsa Amini, after being arrested for not wearing the veil correctly, sparked protests, demonstrations and exploitation. I do not want to discuss the legitimacy of these protests but I am struck by the news of October 1: The Iranian Ministry of Intelligence has presented a report according to which terrorist groups have incited the protests. According to news agency reports, 49 members of the Mojahedin-e-Khalq group, considered terrorist by Tehran and other states, were arrested, spreading propaganda to incite riots and providing incendiary material to demonstrators, following orders from members of the group in Albania.

The Italian Website Marx21: IRAN. Behind the protests of the veil, the terrorism of the Mojahedin-e Khalq

The Mojahedin-e Khalq (or Mojahedin of the Iranian People or Iranian National Liberation Army – PMOI, MEK, MKO) is accused of murdering about 12,000 Iranians in the last 40 years. The organization, founded in the 1960s by a group of radical students who profess Marxism and Islam, waged the first armed struggle against Shah Reza Pahlavi. After the Khomeinist revolution of 1979, the leader of the MEK, Masoud Rajavi, fights the fledgling Islamic Republic of Iran. In 1981, an attack by the MEK wipes out the leaders of the Islamic Republic: 70 officers killed, including President Mohammad-Ali Rajayee, Prime Minister Mohammad-Javad Bahonar and Chief Justice Hossein Beheshti. The Supreme Guide, Ali Khamenei, is seriously injured and loses the use of his right arm.

Later, the MEK summits took refuge in Paris, where they found their “political umbrella”, the National Council of Iranian Resistance (NCRI). In 1986, when President Mitterrand initiated a dialogue with Iran to release the French hostages held in Beirut, France expelled Masoud Rajavi. Meanwhile, the group – already deployed alongside the Iraqi army during the War against Iran (1980-1988) – flees to Iraq, supporting Saddam Hussein in suppressing the country’s Shiite and Kurdish communities.

Women at the MEK Camp Ashraf

Elizabeth Rubin of the New York Times in 2003 visits Camp Ashraf in Iraq (Diyala province) and is able to offer a description of the military base, organization and sectarian characteristics of the group. Rubin says she has seen “an artificial world of worker bees” – about half of the Mojahedin are women – and all, dressed in khaki uniforms and scarlet veils, practice the use of weapons, drive pick-ups and military vehicles. Since the 1980s, MEK adherents have had to take a vow of eternal celibacy, those who are married must divorce, those who are not must swear not to and cannot have children. Over the years the organization, although born from a Marxist-Islamist ideology, assumes the characteristics of a sect centered on the female role and the cult of the personality of the leader Maryam Rajavi (wife of Masoud): girls are taught that joining the sect is “A journey towards self-empowerment and the enlightenment of martyrdom inspired by the light and wisdom of Maryam Rajavi”. Thinking about the Ismaili sect of the Assassins is not really a coincidence!.

Since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the US neo-conservative-backed MEK has received training from the Joint Special Operation Command (JSOC) in the Nevada desert (communication techniques, cryptography, assault and guerrilla techniques, etc.). In 2012, testimony from two Obama administration officials denounced that the murders of five Iranian nuclear scientists (in 2007) were allegedly committed by the MEK in collaboration with Mossad and US intelligence support.

The US in September 2012 removed the MEK from the list of terrorist organizations – a list in which they were registered in 1997 by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright as an opening towards the reformist Iranian president Khatami -. The removal from the terrorist list is supported by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who sends Congress a confidential communication on the matter, allowing the group to do business and activities under US jurisdiction. Since September 2012, the Mojahedin have left Camp Ashraf, their training and training center in Iraq, and are routed to Albania and Europe.

With the Trump administration and the appointment of senior officials such as Mike Pompeo and John Bolton, a new attempt is being made to destabilize Iran. This strategy envisages accreditation in Washington of the MEK group as a “legitimate opposition” to the Islamic Republic of Iran. There are several US political figures who seem “won over” to the cause of the MEK: the former mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani during the annual MEK conference in Paris (June 2018) openly calls for regime change in Tehran; National Security Advisor John Bolton regularly attends their conventions. Moreover, lobbying efforts are well known in US politics.

Today the MEK publicly profess values of secularism and democracy in Iran, cheerfully exhibit a pro-free-market philosophy, preach women’s emancipation. However, within them they hide a contradictory truth, considering that the members of the group do not have access to newspapers, radio or television and that no one can criticize the leader. They also intend to overthrow the Iranian regime and create a government headed by Maryam Rajavi, already appointed by them as future president. Members are periodically subjected to self-criticism sessions in which they are filmed admitting to having behaved contrary to the laws of the group (the films can later be used against them).

Human Rights organizations have extensively documented abuses within the group, and the Iranian population itself does not recognize any legitimacy, indeed there is a profound hostility towards the MEK for the support provided to Saddam during the Iran-Iraq war.

Veil or not, it is difficult for Iranians and Iranians to forget the trail of blood left by the MEK.

By Marco Pondrelli, Marx21 – Translated by Nejat Society

October 8, 2022 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Stop Outrage against women including the ones in the MEK

While there is no sympathizer of the Mujahedin Khalq (MEK) among Iranian protesters, the group’s leaders broadcast messages for the so-called Khalq (people) one after the other, on their propaganda machine. “Stop outrage! Iranian women do not deserve it,” Maryam Rajavi addressed her fictional audience. She should be asked what about the Mujahed women? Do they deserve outrage?

As an Iranian living in Iran who has access to the media inside and outside the country, I can testify that the majority of Iranian protesters never hear the so-called messages of Maryam and Massoud Rajavi. In fact, the group is so detested by the Iranian public that its very few supporters do not dare to chant slogans on behalf of the MEK and its leaders. They are sure that if they are recognized as MEK supporters, they will be definitely excluded by other protesters because Iranians regard the MEK as traitors and terrorists who has the blood of their own fellow Iranians on their hands. Thus, messages of MEK leaders launched by the group’s media is almost only reached by the group’s insiders, those who are confined in Camp Ashraf 3, in north of Tirana, Albania.

around a thousand members work in the so-called”computer division,”allegedly using fake accounts to post pro-organization propaganda on Twitter and Facebook

Consider an elderly female member of the MEK who gets the massage of her leader, Maryam Rajavi, while she is sitting in front of a desktop system. Her daily routine is to share the leaders’ messages and other manufactured news of the MEK propaganda in social media. She has to like and share the same contents that are shared by her comrades in the same room, at Ashraf troll farm. She works like a robot but who knows? Mind is the most powerful tool in the world. She might hesitate for a second thinking of her own situation as a female member in the MEK Camp.

The token woman has no husband. She got married about forty years ago but her husband might have been killed in one of the MEK’s terrorist act or more probably he must have divorced from her under the order of the group’s guru, Massoud Rajavi. She has no child. Her children were smuggled to somewhere in Europe or North America in 1991 and since then, she has had no news of them. Maybe, the children have been brought back to the group as a child soldier. She might be allowed to visit her child once a year for new year’s celebration although they live in the same camp, regardless that the child might have defected or might have been killed in past years. She has no news of her family outside the group. No phone call or other means of communication are allowed.

The token might have been endured a hysterectomy surgery as about one hundred MEK women endured when the group was located in Camp Ashraf, Iraq. The surgery made them ready for what Massoud Rajavi would call “Ideal Summit”, the position that made the female members prepared for a sexual relation with him. Thus, the woman of this story might have been coerced to become one of Massoud’s numerous sex partners.

MEK Cult women in Albania

She is wearing a gray or khaki uniform and head scarf. She has no choice to select the color of her clothes. She has to cover her hair, and the whole body. If she does not obey the group’s regulations for clothing, she will be punished. Talking of anything except routine tasks is not allowed. She must always take distance from male comrades. Any contact with the opposite sex is considered a crime and makes her the subject of suppression, verbal abuse, torture and even murder. Read about the fate Mehri Moosavi here.

This woman has been manipulated to abandon her sexuality and her individuality. She should be proud of her situation according to the leaders. She has to admit that the cause of the group is more important that any personal choice in her life. But, where is the cause of the group? What have been these women struggling for? Where is their voice in the streets of Iran? How can Maryam Rajavi call for freedom of Iranian women while her own female followers are deprived from their most basic rights? Outrage and discrimination must be stopped against all women including women of the Cult of Rajavi.

By Mazda Parsi

October 4, 2022 0 comments

Nejat Publications

Nejat Newsletter No. 98

Inside The Issue:

– MEK cult neither likes women nor Kurds

The propaganda of the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) makes efforts to exploit the incidents in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini, the Kurdish 22-year-old girl. Although the heartbreaking death of Mahsa sparked wave of protests in Iran, the MEK is absolutely incompetent to take any position in support of Mahsa or Iranian women in general.

– Mother of MEK hostage laments the sons’ loss

37 years ago, Azim Ershadi Nariman left Iran to Turkey along with his family to find a better life. Unfortunately they soon were deceived by the MEK elements in Turkey and transferred to the group’s camp in Iraq.

– Maryam Rajavi Knocked out by Iranians in social media

The death of the young Iranian Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, after she was arrested by the Iranian morality Police was heartbreaking and was followed by waves of protests across the country.

– Babakhanloo set himself on fire under MEK’s cult-like pressure

Mohammad Reza Babakhanloo is a name which has been listed as a victim of the Mojahedin-e Khalq by numerous former members of the group. The most recent testimony on the heartbreaking death of Mohammad Reza was given by a defector of the group Jaber Taee Semiromi (nicknamed Arash).

– MEK’s sponsors are known for human rights violations and terrorism

Robert Fantina, the university professor, human rights activist, political commentator and journalist from Canada writes extensively about US foreign policy and the Middle East, which focus on Palestine.

– Open letter of the CEO of Nejat Society to the Prime Minister of Albania

The process of affairs in Albania does not seem very favorable from the point of view of political and national security. The story of tensions started when the presence of a destructive mind-control cult called the MEK was imposed on Albania, and these tensions intensified when this organization directed subversive and terrorist activities inside Iran from the territory of Albania,

– Dominos of problems for Albania after MEK’s relocation

Following the recent hacking of the Albanian government systems which caused the country sever ties with Tehran, Israel offered cyber defense assistance to Albania.

– Cult Withdrawal Syndrome, 20 years after leaving the MEK

According to cult experts, former members of cults show a distinctive psychological syndrome which is attributable to psychologically deleterious practices in cults. This is called cult withdrawal syndrome.

– Open Letter from the CEO of Nejat Society to Josep Borrell Fontelles

You are aware of the tensions and challenges between the governments of Albania and Iran these days. We try to stay away from political issues and focus on our human rights goals only. But the type of work and our aims require us not to be indifferent to the political changes in Albania, which are very worrying for the families.

– Open Letter to Microsoft

From: Olsi Jazexhi and Gjergji Thanasi, To: Microsoft Security
Threat Intelligence, Your anonymous analyst has alluded that the latest cyber-attack against Albania was carried out by Iran. While we are not cyber experts, in your analysis we were impressed by your enterance where you say that: “The attackers were observed operating outside Iran”

To view the pdf file click here

October 3, 2022 0 comments

Albania

Albania Caught in the crossfire of cyber conflict

The recent cyberattack on Albania by Iran highlights the intensification of conflict within cyberspace.

Earlier this month the “strongest public response to a cyberattack” was witnessed when Albania severed diplomatic relations with Iran over its role in the devastating cyberattacks against Albania’s government infrastructure. This cascading incident highlights the vast differences in nation-state capabilities and defences within cyberspace, and how offensive cyber operations can devastate those nations caught in the middle.

On 17 July 2022, Albania was hit by a series of cyberattacks that targeted public services and government websites. The attack, claimed by ‘HomeLand Justice’ employed new family ransomware malware, ROADSWEEP, and a new variant of a wiper malware, ZEROCLEAR. Since Albania is a NATO member, and these attacks are happening during Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, the local media speculated that Russia was the culprit.

This speculation faded quickly after a US cyber threat intelligence firm, Mandiant, attributed the cyberattack and the ‘HomeLand Justice’ group to Iran. Their analysis was aided by the imagery used on the ‘HomeLand Justice’ group’s Telegram channel. Iran had posted a banner image which depicted an eagle swooping down on a smaller bird within the Star of David.

Source: Mandiant

The smaller bird—a character from the Angry Bird franchise—seemed innocuous but provided analysts a clear link to Iran. John Hultquist, Vice President, Mandiant Threat Intelligence, explained that the smaller bird had been claimed by ‘Predatory Sparrow’, a threat actor that has conducted offensive cyber operations against Iran.

Source: Mandiant

In fact, since July 2021, the ‘Predatory Sparrow’ threat actor has been conducting measured, destructive, and disruptive cyber operations against Iran. Their offensive cyber operations disrupted rail services, cut off fuel distribution, and even destroyed a steel plant affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

There’s no clear evidence to suggest that Albania’s government had a role in ‘Predatory Sparrow’s operations, yet Iran deemed them a fair target in responding against ‘Predatory Sparrow’s actions. The prevailing theory, supported by a new report from Microsoft, suggests that ‘Predatory Sparrow’ is linked to the exiled Iranian opposition group, the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MeK) which operates out of Albania and Israel. This is further supported by terrorist threats that cancelled a planned MeK conference in Albania.

Given ‘Predatory Sparrow’s year-long destructive cybercampaign, Iran was justifiably itching to respond. Albania, regarded by Iran as a “safe haven” for the MeK, is more of an ‘unwitting conspirator’ than a knowing participant in this ongoing cyber conflict. Albania is considered to be the “fifth largest source of cybercrime in Europe”, which only recently took steps to develop a cybercrime centre, and received 18 million euros in November 2021 to establish a cyber military force. After a massive leak of citizen data in December 2021, Albania brought in US firms to bolster its cyber defences.

Even though Albania lacked proper cyber defences, it is a member of NATO. The military alliance has been reinvigorated, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and in February 2022, it reaffirmed that a cyberattack on a NATO member state could trigger Article 5—the alliance’s collective defence clause, last activated by the US after the 9/11 terror attacks. However, NATO has since declined to clarify what threshold a significant cyberattack (or “an accumulation of smaller ones”) would need to cross for an Article 5 decision.

Albania, regarded by Iran as a “safe haven” for the MeK, is more of an ‘unwitting conspirator’ than a knowing participant in this ongoing cyber conflict.

Declaring Article 5, is a political decision, much like a declaration of war. One is inclined to speculate whether Albania’s fellow NATO members, actively engrossed with the Russian invasion, sought to avoid sparking a ‘second front’ in the Middle East. Albania, opted against Article 5, despite the disruption and destruction of its government services and systems, and chose to cut diplomatic ties with Iran. This move did little to deter Iran from conducting yet another offensive cyber operations against Albania’s border system.

What has been unfolding is a perfect case of a comprehensive conflict within cyberspace. The most noteworthy observation is the difference in the playing field between sophisticated cyber actors and other countries.

Those countries that have been on the receiving end of cyber action or cyber-enabled espionage, have gone on to develop both their offensive and defensive capabilities. Often taking a traditional military posture that favours strengthening offensive capabilities over defensive capabilities, Iran is a prime example of this.

On the defensive side, the US has been dealing with offensive cyber action and cyber-enabled espionage from Iran, North Korea, China, and Russia for more than 15 years. NATO members such as the United Kingdom (UK), France, Canada, and Germany have grown to deal with similar threats—albeit within a smaller timeframe. To defend their economies and societies, these nations have spent billions in growing a cybersecurity industry and building defenses against offensive cyber operations.

Escalation in cyber conflict
Ironically, this conditioning: building capacity, developing resilience, and strengthening response times, has likely contributed to the intensification of cyber events that this author and Jason Healey, a Senior Research Scholar at Columbia SIPA, alluded to in December 2021.

Source: CCDCOE

Cyber events are now routinely crossing thresholds that would have been viewed as increasingly risky 20 years ago. The result is that offensive cyber operations are now manageable for countries such as the US but are now catastrophic for smaller countries that are thrust into the cyber conflict space. The potential scale of this effect likely makes smaller countries ideal targets for sophisticated actors looking to demonstrate their capabilities. Iran appears to have stronger evidence on Israel’s role in the ‘Predatory Sparrow’ campaign (the two countries have been exchanging attacks for years) but opted to attack Albania’s government for harbouring the MeK—using the disruptive incident to send a message to Iran’s enemies.

This incident is chilling because it shows the spread of sophisticated cyber capabilities, and the growing intent to conduct such operations. Most theories around cyber conflict have kept the US as a key player in such conflicts—‘Predatory Sparrow’ and Iran’s response have shown that this is outdated.

The result is that offensive cyber operations are now manageable for countries such as the US but are now catastrophic for smaller countries that are thrust into the cyber conflict space.

The US does continue to play a tremendous role in how cyberspace is shaped. Over several years, it has taken great strides in developing its cyber policy and responses, both domestically and internationally. The US government was first to support Albania’s diplomatic decision against Iran, was quick to sanction Iranian officials over the incident, and US firms and law enforcement have been involved in the initial incident response and capacity development. However, the US continues to make cyberspace an increasingly ‘quintuply dangerous’ area of conflict with its 2018 National Cyber Strategy.

The US’ military has an inherently offence-oriented posture with its ‘Persistent Engagement’ strategy and ‘Hunt Forward’ operations continuing to escalate tensions within cyberspace. These actions are achieved by infiltrating and confronting adversaries within their own networks. These operations can be conducted using networks belonging to the US’ allies (with and without consent) which could mislead counter-cyber operations.

Whether intentional or not, the US’ policies serve as a benchmark which are subsequently modified for individual countries. For adversaries, these policies are intended to confuse and confound any hope of attribution. This pushes adversaries to look for smaller, less cyber-capable countries that can be made an example of. Such efforts are only making cyberspace more dangerous.

VIRPRATAP VIKRAM SINGH – orfonline

October 1, 2022 0 comments

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