Back in 1981, a 3-year-old girl Zahra Nourbakhsh, was on a bus together with her family, when it was set on fire by the agents of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO, MEK, PMOI, Cult of Rajavi) in Shiraz, Iran. In that traumatic incident, she was severely injured and her two-year-old sister was killed. [1]
This was one of the many terrorist attacks of the MEK against Iranian civilians and authorities. However, Advocacy for violent groups such as the MEK, as a tool to run the agenda of superpowers, is not a taboo. Ted Carpenter, vice president for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C, analyzes this phenomenon in his book “Gullible Superpower: U.S. Support For Bogus Foreign Democratic Movements”.
In his book Carpenter focuses on ten separate case studies of times the United States gave “democratic” cover to movements that were far from deserving. These include the Islamic fundamentalist Mujahideen in Afghanistan, Nicaraguan and Salvadoran death squads, the authoritarian Jonas Savimbi of Angola, the organ-trafficking Kosovo Liberation Army, Ahmed Chalabi’s National Iraqi Congress, and the People’s Mujahedin of Iran. [2]
“Gullible Superpowers has an excellent chapter on the Iranian group Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK),” writes James Bovard of the American Conservative. “That organization sprang up in the 1960s and proceeded to kill Americans in the 1970s and large numbers of Iranians in subsequent decades. NBC News reported in early 2012 that MEK had carried out killings of Iranian nuclear scientists and that it was “financed, trained and armed by Israel’s secret service.” [3]
Advocacy for the MEK as the enemy of their enemy is not limited to the US and Israel. The group is also embraced by the regional rival of Iran, Saudi Arabia. However, Albanian government should also be added to the list of MEK’s friends although it has never been involved in serious political engagements or arguments with Iranian government. Actually, the motivation of Albanian authorities to receive the MEK is based on money. It was chosen as a safe haven for the group because the US wanted so.
Reza Alghurabi of the American Herald Tribune writes, “Under pressure from the Iraqi government and the country’s civil activists who demanded the expulsion of the MEK from Iraq, the U.S. government was forced to choose Albania, which was suffering from extremely weak economic conditions, as the final destination of the terrorist group.” [4]
Alghurabi explains how the US government “was forced to choose” Albania: “The Americans lured the Albanian officials into hosting the MEK by donating a $25 million package which was offered to Albania under the pretext of promoting reforms in the country. Furthermore, another $20 million was donated to the UN refugee agency by the U.S. to help resettle the MEK in Albania.” [5]
Nevertheless, this is not the only financial resource that Albania enjoys by the side of the MEK. The MEK is notoriously known for its lavish payments to its sponsors. Speakers at the MEK events are usually paid hefty sums of money for a ten-minute speech on behalf of the group. So, it is quiet natural for the MEK to fund the Albanian government and its authorities. In exchange the Albanian authorities serve them with hostile acts towards Iran.
“Edi Rama’s UN speech on September 27, 2019 in which he denounced Iran and praised the MEK, has raised speculations that the terrorist group influences Albanian officials,” Alghurabi writes. “In addition, Ilir Meta, another member of Albania’s socialist party and the Albanian president, had also visited MEK’s headquarters in Manze earlier and met with the group’s leader Maryam Rajavi.” [65]
Double standards on terrorism point to an awkward attitude among politicians in the US, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Albania. As far as a terrorist group is beneficial, it can be considered as democratic. “MEK apologists continue to portray the group as idealistic freedom fighters devoted to democracy,” James Bovard states. “A simple online search shows that the Farsi translation of the group’s name is “holy warriors of the people.” But as long as the MEK serves the purposes of the Saudi and Israeli governments and their American string-pullers, there will be plenty of Washingtonians who pretend that the Iranian people do not loathe MEK.” [7]
They can pretend anything they are willing too but the absolute truth is that the MEK is loathed by the Iranian people.
Mazda Parsi
Sources:
[1] https://www.nejatngo.org/en/posts/6767
[2] Carpenter, Ted Galen, Gullible Superpower: U.S. Support For Bogus Foreign Democratic Movements, Cato Institute, February 19th , 2019.
[3] Bovard, James, Idiocy or Perfidy? How We Get Hooked on Foreign Democracy Crusades, the American Conservative, October 2nd , 2019.
[4] Alghurabi, Reza, Why Did Saudis Decide to Expand Their Relations with Albania?, American Herald Tribune, October 6th, 2019.
[5] ibid
[6] ibid
[7] Bovard, James, Idiocy or Perfidy? How We Get Hooked on Foreign Democracy Crusades, the American Conservative, October 2nd , 2019.