“If it seems like fake news is everywhere, that may be because it is”, suggested NBC News in March 2018, quoting researchers that “Falsehoods spread like wildfire on social media, getting quicker and longer-lasting pickup than the truth”. [1]
This capacity of social media and mass media has been well used by the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi) to spread disinformation against the Iranian government. But what will the group gain in exchange?
The MEK launched its propaganda campaign in 2002 when it first published the alleged information on the Iranian nuclear weapon program. The campaign has been working aggressively for the past two decades. The disinformation fabricated by the MEK has so far been used by the US and its allies as a pretext to take the most hostile policies against Iran.
On July 4th, 2019 Gareth Porter, a historian, investigative journalist, and analyst specializing in US national security policy, told Radio Sputnik’s Loud & Clear that the US’ claim that Iran had a nuclear weapons program is based on false ideas bolstered by the US intelligence community and that China is unlikely to succumb to the US’ anti-Iran campaign. [2] Porter had previously published several investigated articles on the very subject.
“The problem in part is that the US intelligence community completely muffed it – they blew this even more thoroughly than they blew the questions of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq,” Porter told Sputnik. [3]
“It was based on a series of false ideas that the intelligence communities began with and some maneuvering by high-ranking CIA officials … who interfered with the process of the assessment of Iran’s nuclear program within the CIA,” Porter explained. “It culminated in the approval of this set of documents that came from the Mujahedin-e-Khalq [MEK] that was aligned with and did work with the Israelis” to allegedly prove that Iran had an active nuclear weapons program. [4]
The peak of the MEK’s successful deal –to sell fake news and buy war drums—was the case of the fictional persona named Heshmat Alavi that was revealed by the Intercept, a few weeks ago. “His purported work has appeared in a wide variety of journals over the years, write Robert Fantina of the Global Research. “However, on closer scrutiny, we learn that Mr. Alavi simply doesn’t exist! He is a creation of the political wing of the terrorist organization known as Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), which exists for the sole purpose of overthrowing the government of Iran.” [5]
Fantina clarifies: “This raises even more questions: why does the U.S. need invented ‘journalists’ to sell its anti-Iran story? Could it be, possibly, because the truth is nothing like the U.S. says, and so relying on a made-up writer for made-up stories is the best it can do?” [6]
“Most journalists (this writer included), don’t hide from the public. In addition to writing, they speak at public forums, and their faces may be almost as well-known as their names,” he continues scrutinizing the MEK and its supporters over Alavi. “Where has the illusive Mr. Alavi been? Was he too busy writing all those articles for Forbes to crawl out of whatever hole he lived in to speak publicly about issues important to him? No, that is not the case; he was unable to speak at any conference, symposium, rally, etc., because he doesn’t exist.” [7]
“This is the ‘writer’ whose ‘work’ Donald Trump cited to justify violating international law, and to bring the threat of a devastating war to an area of the world that his predecessor had made significant progress in calming. This is the ‘writer’ that not only Forbes, but The Hill, the Daily Caller, the Diplomat and other so-called responsible news outlets gave a platform to.” [8]
Assal Rad writes on Lobelog that Trump and his regime-change cabinet are now touting the MEK as a viable alternative to the current government in Iran. “Despite these parallels, the mainstream media continues to give a platform to radical groups like the MEK, which are weaving together a questionable story to build a case for regime change and war with Iran,” She asserts. [9]
Comparing the MEK with Iraqi National Congress, Rad warns about the fraudulent part of the of the MEK in leading the West to another war in the Middle East. “Also similar to the INC, which claimed that it did not seek power in Iraq, the MEK pretends to work for democracy in Iran in the name of the Iranian people”, she states. “Though both organizations have used fabrications to push their agenda, the tools of disinformation have evolved over time and the MEK has mastered the art of false narratives.” [10]
She refers to the MEK as a pro-war entity that is skilled manipulator of mass media: “Revelations have come to light on the role of the MEK in magnifying efforts at misrepresentation through inauthentic social media accounts aimed at manufacturing “Iranian” support for the Trump administration’s pro-war policies. The MEK also utilizes promoted content on news sites. For instance, The Hill is running a 10-week mini-series on Iran sponsored by the Organization of Iranian-American Communities (OIAC), a front group for the MEK.” [11]
As the MEK and its sponsors in the US government continue to push for an all-out war with Iran, remember that these same people and their peers have been repeatedly lying in order to start nearly every war in US history. War and its natural consequence, violence, cannot be excluded from the history of the Mujahedin Khalq as well.
Mazda Parsi
References:
[1] Fox, Maggie, Fake News: Lies spread faster on social media than truth does, NBC News, March 8th, 2018.
[2] Sputnik News, US Intelligence Has ‘Muffed’ Proof on Iran’s Alleged WMD Programs for Decades, July 4th, 2019.
[3] ibid
[4] ibid
[5] Fantina, Robert, America’s War against Iran: The Insidious Role of the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) Terrorist Entity, Global Research, June 19th, 2019.
[6] ibid
[7] ibid
[8] ibid
[9] Rad, Assal, Propaganda War to Real War: The MEK’s Treacherous Operation, Lobelog, July 1st, 2019.
[10] ibid
[11] ibid