++ cibloggers dot com which publishes information about the MEK in Farsi has said the MEK is paying reporters to go to Iran and then publish false reports on their return. The MEK’s aim is for Iran to stop allowing people to come there. Some years ago the MEK tried other tactics of annoyance and interference such as paying for newspaper adverts for shampoo using Massoud Rajavi’s picture. This had no effect since nobody in Iran recognised him.
++ Ebrahim Khodabandeh has written an article examining how the MEK has marked its fiftieth year. To mark the anniversary, the MEK’s websites in Farsi and English feature a side banner purporting to show the group’s history. Khodabandeh says that what is most interesting is both what is missing and what is just plain wrong about this history. For example there is no mention of the MEK logo – which is still used – nor that the MEK was founded as an armed, anti-Imperialist group. Nothing is said about killing Americans in Iran and supporting the American embassy siege. There is no mention of Saddam Hussein whatsoever and no mention of the MEK’s current relocation to Albania.
++ September 1st marked the anniversary of the last attack on Ashraf Camp in 2013. The MEK is still refusing to allow investigators to talk with the 42 survivors. And as much as the MEK tries to whitewash events through its internet misinformation campaigns, it is clear that former member Massoud Dalili was taken by force, kept hostage and murdered at the camp.
++ MEK websites have been virulently attacking everyone who is not in favour of war against Iran – that is, anyone who supports the nuclear deal. More than anyone the attacks have focused on the Nobel Prize winning human rights and opposition activist Shirin Ebadi who has asked Congress not to oppose the deal. Many people have written open letters in her support congratulating her on being attacked by Rajavi because ‘this means you are doing something right’. Nader Naderi has pointed out that Maryam Rajavi’s hatred of Ebadi is personal and stems from jealousy. Rajavi is jealous of anyone, but particularly women, who is acknowledged in any way. Even though Rajavi herself does nothing, she still wants all the prizes.
++ Mostafa Mohammadi was interviewed by Haghighat Association about the MEK video of his daughter Somayeh. Mohammadi says “it is clear to me that that this is not my daughter speaking her own mind and she has been forced to say these things to camera”. He says that this is an act of desperation by Massoud Rajavi who is reacting to the outrage of the outside world to his hostage taking. Mohammadi continued, “The fact that already they have had to take off her uniform and put her in civilian clothes is a step forward for us”.
++ Ebrahim Khodabandeh has published the 9th part of the informative series of articles containing reports from inside the MEK which he receives from friends, former colleagues. This time there is news about Albania. The MEK has bought an empty university site where it is hoped to create another Ashraf Camp to isolate and control the cult members. Even there though they have a serious problem with disaffected members who are leaving by the day. The MEK is in a state of panic that most of the new people who come from Iraq will leave. As well as planning to shut off the site to create another isolated camp, Massoud Rajavi has planned new brainwashing sessions as a continuation of his so-called ‘Ideological Revolution’. This phase called ‘talab kar’ or ‘creditor’. This is based on Rajavi’s accusation that ‘after divorcing your spouse and separating from your children you still think I owe you something. You have to undergo this new phase so that you see that you are in debt to me. I owe you nothing.’ Rajavi has appointed four notorious torturers to oversee this indoctrination process: Faezeh Mohabatkar, Shahin Haeri, Mahmoud Attai, Adel Darbandi. These two women and two men are now in charge of controlling people. Khodabandeh says that the emails he receives suggest that one of the major questions for members concerns the expenses of Maryam Rajavi’s fancy events from which they see no gain or benefit. At the same time, they point out, long serving members are deprived of even a doctor’s visit. Maryam Rajavi has a recorded a video speech in which she attacks every single member and says it’s their own fault they got to this point because they failed to do their job. She claims the members in France are having a worse time than Iraq or Albania. She says ‘The money I spend is justified, but you don’t understand, and anyway we have no money’. In Albania several members have run away and got married. As a result the gender segregation is very strictly applied in an attempt to stop more such defections. Last week a female member was briefly imprisoned for handing over a glass of water to a man. According to Khodabandeh’s friends, only the high ranking members understand that this new phase of the Ideological Revolution is designed to bring the members under submission so that the next Secretary General of the MEK can be announced. This is something which Rajavi does every two years or so. The high ranking members are sick of this since they see the incompetence of these women. The brainwashing process has already been started in Europe but not in Albania since the MEK needs to get the rank and file isolated and in mental order first. Even though Khodabandeh’s friends say they know this is mostly about keeping people’s minds occupied rather than a significant change, this time the corruption is too much. The new MEK Secretary General will be Narges Ghajar Azadanlou who is Maryam Rajavi’s neice.
In English:
++ A number of female survivors of the Rajavi cult wrote an open letter to Womankind charity after it became the latest target of a Mojahedin Khalq propaganda campaign to promote Maryam Rajavi as a women’s rights activist. The letter advised the charity to research Rajavi as a controversial character and not to allow the charity to be tarnished by association with a woman with a long record of human rights abuses, particularly against women.
++ Tasnim News Agency in Iran reported on a visit by President Rouhani to The Second International Congress of 17,000 Iranian Terror Victims which was held in Tehran. A number of officials and families of the Iranian victims of terrorist attacks attended the congress. During the event, a book including a chronology of terrorist incidents in Iran during the first two years after victory of the Islamic Revolution (1979 and 1980) was unveiled. Press TV interviewed Tony Gosling, an investigative journalist in Tehran, about Rouhani’s visit.
++ Nejat Bloggers writes that the success of the nuclear agreement has destroyed the MEK’s efforts to be re-armed as a terrorist group. “…before the nuclear agreement, there was always a possibility for a US-Israeli invasion against Iran. In case of a military invasion against Iran, an armed MKO would have had the capacity to get prepared to be at service of the invaders as it has the eight-year long experience of serving the enemy of Iran, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Besides, the progress of the ISIS terrorists in Iraq and Syria had given the MKO the hope to become an accomplice for ISIS in order to fight Islamic Republic.”
++ Ali Akbar Rastgou of Aawa Association wrote an open letter to President Obama explaining that the MEK is trying to falsely portray anyone who agrees with the nuclear agreement as supporters of the Iranian regime. Rastgou says, “Please do not forget that those who have paid the highest price for the cause of democracy and human rights in Iran (majority of the Iranian people) are supporting the deal.”
++ Nejat Bloggers: “On Tuesday August31, 2015 some families of MKO hostages gathered together at Nejat Society office, Khuzestan branch. The meeting was to look at the Cult function in transferring Camp Liberty residents to Albania. Mr. Hamid Hasani, MKO defector, while offering the latest news on the transfers, presented some explanations on the way the Cult acts in relocating TTL residents to Albania. Mr. Hasani reiterated that the families’ efforts and the ex-members’ revelations on the Cult has forced the MKO leaders to accept the members’ transfer to third countries. The Director of Nejat Society Khuzestan branch called on families to continue their efforts until all captives of MKO Cult be released from the physical and mental barriers of the cult. Mr. Ali Ekrami, another cult survivor, offered some explanations on the Cult history as well as the causes of the cult demise. At the end Nejat families emphasized: ‘Our ultimate goal is not just to visit our beloved ones, rather we will do our best to liberate all those who are captivated behind the bars of Rajavi’s Cult and to bring them a normal life. Our presence in front of Camp Ashraf and our direct observations on the Cult inhumane practices has multiplied our determination to liberate all the Cult hostages.’“
September 04, 2015