++ Most of this week’s Farsi posts, comments and articles have been about the events in Iraq. The MEK has been on overdrive producing anti-Maliki and anti-Iraqi government propaganda to the point that their internal critics have raised the alarm claiming they are putting the lives of the people in Camp Liberty in danger by siding with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and thereby legitimising the killing of them by opposing Kurdish and Shiite militias etc.
++ Newspapers and analysts in Iraq are saying that the Baath Party and ISIL are the same thing, and are working together; ISIL forces are carrying the Baath Party and ISIL flags together. Many are from Saddam’s army and this explains why there are personnel able to fly helicopters and aircraft. Many writers highlight the US’s insistence on keeping the MEK in Iraq. Now the Iraqi press and analysts are joining up the dots, they say it is clear the US have been trying hard to keep as many Saddamists as possible along with Sunnis sympathetic to the West in the Iraqi government. They identify the MEK as a small part of the larger plot against Iraq and its elected government – which encompasses Saudis, Baathists, Western intelligence directors and mercenaries with financial and military support, and Neoconservatives. The aim, allegedly, is to punish Iraqis for freely electing a government which refuses to be a puppet for the Americans, and they are hoping to engineer a coup d’état as they did in Cairo to install such a regime.
++ Reports from Tirana reveal that the MEK’s suppressive system is on the verge of breaking down completely and they can hardly control the people there anymore. MEK commanders Hassan Nayebagha and Esmail Mortezai (aka Javad Khorrasan) will one day come and plead with them to sign papers to say they’ll stay, then the next day they will scream and shout and threaten them, demanding to know who has been leaking information about what is happening there. The MEK clearly don’t know what to do any more. The reaction of these former Camp Liberty residents is to laugh at them and make jokes. Certainly they don’t feel constrained to listen to or fear them any more.
++ There were a couple of articles about the executed Gholamreza Khosravi Savadjani referring to Massoud and Maryam Rajavi’s reaction to this execution. The MEK leaders are publishing as much information as possible about other prisoners linked with the MEK, such as letters of intent to commit acts of terrorism (letters offering their martyrdom). Their aim is to provide incriminating documents for the Iranian government with the hope that more executions will follow.
++ The number of internal critics in the MEK’s circle of influence is growing very fast and their complaints are becoming more serious. They are now criticising Maryam Rajavi for her planned rally on the 27th June. Many are asking her to stop this partying and carnival show while the people in Camp Liberty are under threat due to the precarious situation in Iraq. They are asking her to spend MEK money to bring people out of Iraq rather than paying lobbyists to pose for pictures with her.
++ Hoshiar Zibari, Iraq’s Foreign Minister, has said in a statement that ISIL and ex Saddamists are now working together as one. The Baathist element are called Naghsh Bandieh which is the military section belonging to the Ezzat Ebrahim branch of Saddamists.
In English:
++ Anne Khodabandeh responded to the MEK’s furious attack on Baroness Emma Nicholson who was appointed by PM David Cameron as the UK’s Trade Envoy to Iraq. The MEK naively accuse her of working for Iranian interests. The article, however, highlights the MEK’s failure to make good its thirty year promise of regime change in Iran, and how its current role in the events in Iraq expose its destructive role. Conversely, the role of trade envoy will not only bring economic benefits to the UK, but the greater contact and better relations this entails will act as a catalyst for improving the human rights situation for Iraqi citizens.
++ Mazda Parsi from Nejat Bloggers exposes the debacle engendered by the meeting between Syrian opposition leader Ahmad Jarba and Maryam Rajavi in Paris last week. Jarba is reported to regret the meeting. After he discovered that the MEK is “a terrorist cult with a dark background of terror acts, violence and cult-like behaviour”, Jarba said, “the MEK deceived us”. Parsi concludes: “Ultimately, the whole story demonstrates the opportunistic substance of terrorists in any form. However, as we know, the meeting was held at the request of MKO representatives who had visited the Syrian opposition figures a few days earlier. While both sides expected a beneficial mutual relationship, the final meeting between the two self-proclaimed presidents sounds like a lose-lose game.”
++ Habilian Association in Iran writes, “In his latest statement, the ringleader of Mujahedin-e Khalq terrorist group expressed his solidarity with the Jaish-ul-Adl terrorist group. Referring to the execution of 16 men affiliated to Jaish-ul-Adl terrorist group, Masoud Rajavi, whose whereabouts are unknown since the US invasion of Iraq, described them as their “brothers”. Earlier in October 2013, Maryam Rajavi, the co-leader of the MKO, also released a statement condemning the execution of terrorists, while a group of Iranian border guards were killed in cold blood close to the Iranian border with Pakistan.”
++ Iran-Interlink has published a screen shot of the MEK’s official website which hails the actions of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), calling them “revolutionary forces”. Along with Saddam’s daughter in Jordan, the MEK appear to be the only people in the world publicly supporting the group.