Albania is notorious as the backyard for US dirty work – a hub for financing, recruitment and training and dispatching ‘good’ terrorists. That’s why the terrorist cult Mojahedin Khalq (MEK) is based there. The MEK, a mercenary force, is paid for propaganda and misinformation campaigns online and for hosting rallies and conferences with paid speakers, to skew and toxify the political narrative on Iran.

The newly arrived Afghan refugees who speak Farsi are ripe for recruitment by the MEK. They can be used to bulk out the audience at Maryam Rajavi’s fake gatherings. They can be used in the click farm at the MEK camp in Durres. They can be trained over the coming year or so, to replace some of the older MEK members in North America and Europe.

As the following article reveals, this influx of Afghan refugees is not without its critics among the Albanian public. Albanians have every right to look suspiciously on American plans for these refugees.

Afghan Refugees in Albania – Recruitment Fodder for the MEK. Albania divided over hosting US-bound Afghan refugees

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Albania Praised for Sheltering 457 Afghan Refugees so Far

https://exit.al/en/2021/08/30/albania-praised-for-sheltering-457-afghan-refugees-so-far/

Exit News, Tirana, Albania
Link to the source

There are now 457 Afghan refugees in Albania following the arrival of the fourth and fifth planes yesterday.

The refugees are being processed, medically evaluated, and having needs assessments done before being settled at dormitories in Student City, or hotels in Durres.

Prime Minister Edi Rama welcomed the refugees and noted that Albania’s decision to house them is being spoken of with admiration in the international community. He said it reflects the faith and respect Albanians have for memory, tradition, and self.

Finally a touchdown! @NEDemocracy, @NDI, @IRIglobal, and @CIPEglobal & score of other helpers…we finally did it!!! More #Afghan activists & dependants are now safe and no longer in peril. Proud and thankful that a WB country, #Albania 🇦🇱, has offered a safe haven. pic.twitter.com/AAVskth05t

— Tanja Dramac (@DRamacT) August 29, 2021

Yesterday, the Associate Director of Europe at the International Foundation for Democracy, Tanja Dramac, thanked Albania for hosting Afghan citizens.

She expressed her gratitude and added:

“We did it. More of our Afghan activists are now safe and no longer in danger. Proud and grateful that a country like Albania has offered a safe haven.”

Great to welcome 2 more planes from Kabul carrying 154 Afghans, incl women of all professions, journalists, activists, children. Pleased to work w/@ediramaal @RepSlotkin @SpiritAmerica @VitalVoices @YaldaHakimFund @SchmidtFutures to bring people out of harm’s way. Thank you, 🇦🇱 ! pic.twitter.com/NfscCg0KZg

— Ambassador Yuri Kim (@USAmbAlbania) August 28, 2021

US Ambassador Yuri Kim was also present when refugees arrived. She gave a special welcome to women, journalists, activists, and children

The post Afghan Refugees in Albania – Recruitment Fodder for the MEK appeared first on Nejat Society.

Thus, the sudden mass exodus of refugees has exposed already existing divisions among the world’s major powers. And thrown the little Balkans country Albania into the spotlight as Albania serves once again as a litmus test for relations among these powers. News emerged that Albanian prime minister Edi Rama has agreed to host Afghan refugees destined for the US as a temporary measure so that their visa applications can be processed. As various western countries scramble to rescue their nationals and vulnerable Afghans who worked with them, this move should not be taken at face value but needs to be looked at in a wider context of America’s presence in the Balkans region. As we are witnessing in Afghanistan, American influence is increasingly recognised as ‘not benign’.

After Albania joined NATO in 2009, American influence was cemented there

After Albania joined NATO in 2009, American influence was cemented there. Indeed, although Albania has ambitions to join the European Union, it is this American influence which is hampering efforts to meet the obligations required to join. As well as the EU’s interest in absorbing Albania, Russia has, of course, not relinquished its own interest in the country. China, also, is a major trading partner for Albania. Both Turkey and Iran have cultural, religious and social ties to Albania. But importantly, since its emergence from Communist rule in 1991, Albania has almost drowned in elements of corruption, crime and foreign influence that have left the country under the rule of mafia families and the Americans. Of course, America has taken advantage of this situation. These complex layers of influence and rivalry embedded in corrupt systems and governance enable the Americans to out muscle the other foreign players.

In 2014, the Albanian government was persuaded (paid) by then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to host nearly 3000 Iranian Mojahedin Khalq who were to be expelled from Iraq as members of Saddam Hussein’s repressive regime. Known as Saddam’s Private Army, the MEK had been designated as a terrorist entity by the US, UK and EU. But in 2012, the Americans delisted the MEK to facilitate its transfer to Albania without dismantling the group. The UNHCR claimed that they were transferred on humanitarian grounds. They weren’t. In Albania, the MEK continued unchecked its advocacy and activism for violent regime change against Iran.

The MEK was allowed to build a closed camp to house its members in the same conditions of modern slavery as they had lived in Iraq. Soon after, there was talk of Albania being used to house widows and orphans from Syria. This was a different proposition to the repatriation of Albanian women who had left to marry ISIS fighters; these were many families of many different ISIS fighters. They were to be housed in the MEK camp alongside the MEK members. The idea was to park this problem somewhere ‘neutral’ until the scandal had died down and they could be dispersed elsewhere. The mystery of who these potentially dangerous people were and what would become of them and whether they would be the vanguard for the reception of actual ISIS fighters received enough publicity for the government (Americans) to back down and the plan did not materialise.

Americans bringing Afghan refugees to Albania as braught MEK terrorists

Now the Americans are bringing Afghan refugees to Albania it is worth examining these previous attempts to contain American problems to see what this could mean.

The MEK camp in Albania is home to radicalised, trained fighters. Many members are old and sick, but still able to work in the click farm set up to disseminate lies and misinformation to skew the political analyses and narratives concerning Iran. The members who came to Albania include those who worked directly with Saddam Hussein’s intelligence and security services – eavesdropping on Iranian military and even torturing captive soldiers. Some members disappeared after 2003 and emerged later in the USA – supposedly useful assets. More concerning is that a number of active suicide operatives are embedded and hidden among the 2000 remaining members in the camp. Their role is to be ready to be deployed in operations in Iran (and perhaps beyond), such as the assassinations of nuclear scientists or be sent to incite violence at the scenes of ethnic unrest and civil demonstrations.

Afghans arriving in Albania will be brought by the Americans for specific reasons. The loosely applied term ‘interpreter’ could be a convenient cover for ‘infiltrator’ or ‘torturer’. Afghans used to spy on the Afghan government or torture their fellow countrymen will have secrets and skills which the Americans may not want to reveal or lose. (Similarly, there may be Afghans who never make it to Albania or America for similar reasons.) Once in Albania, these refugees will be first de-pressured and de-briefed (as were MEK members) and screened for their potential use or benefit. Some will be taken to America, others remain in Albania, and there will be a cohort who, because they are not of any use or benefit, will, as were extraneous, uncooperative MEK members, be ushered into the EU. MEK members who left the group became an unwanted burden. When possible, they were ‘eased’ over the border with Greece so that they become the EU’s problem.

Although the numbers are small – some hundreds – the principle has been set; refugees unwanted by the Americans are dumped on the EU. There is every likelihood that the same selection process will take place for Afghan refugees. America will select those it wants and allow those it doesn’t want to travel on to EU countries, increasing the burden there. The difference this time is that these refugees will feel the full burden of American betrayal. It’s almost as though the anticipated threat of terrorist reprisals could be imported directly into Europe.

By Anne and Massoud Khodabandeh,

The post Is America Whitewashing Afghan Refugees in Albania appeared first on Nejat Society.

The idea was already absurd and dangerous. But now the Afghanistan debacle should bury it permanently. Despite 20 years and $1 trillion in military and other aid, the U.S. supported-government collapsed within weeks.

Iran’s population is 83 million, more than twice Afghanistan’s 38 million. It is economically advanced, with a large, educated, technically skilled middle class. What’s more, as John Ghazvinian’s magisterial new history of U.S.-Iran relations points out,

. . . Iran is one of the world’s oldest, proudest, and most enduring civilizations. . . Iran has had three thousand years of (mostly) continuous nationhood. . . It is also one of only seven or eight nations that were never colonized by European powers. . .

The regime-changers do not understand a simple human truth; people anywhere will fight to resist foreign invaders, even if they dislike their own government, especially when the outsiders have a different religion and culture.

Even more preposterous is the Iranian exile group the regime changers are allied with to topple the government in Teheran. The People’s Mujahadeen of Iran (MEK) is a cult organization, based in Albania with no real presence inside Iran, other than small groups of commandos who are probably responsible for sabotage and assassinations. The MEK does have funds — the rumors are that Saudi Arabia contributes — which it has used to lure people like Rudy Giuliani and former Trump national security adviser John Bolton into speaking at its conferences. Bolton told a 2017 MEK gathering in Paris, “There is a viable opposition to the rule of the ayatollahs, and that opposition is centered in this room today.”

But the most astonishing fact about the MEK is that it fought alongside Saddam Hussein in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War against its own countrymen. The MEK itself estimated that it killed over 50,000 Iranian troops. It defies human nature to believe that such an organization will ever be accepted by the Iranian people.

The Iran regime changers are already howling in fear at the sudden collapse in Afghanistan. Here’s one hysterical neoconservative apparatchik, Eli Lake:

After surrendering to the Taliban, does the Biden administration really have the stomach for its long sought capitulation to Iran?

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), Israel’s front organization, is a little more circumspect. But FDD director Mark Dubowitz did warn darkly: “The team managing America’s disastrous Afghanistan policy is in charge of managing America’s disastrous Iran policy.”

Meanwhile, the humanitarian Afghanistan crisis continues. Amid all the noise in the U.S., Rep. Ilhan Omar, a former refugee herself, had one of the most sensible responses:

There will be plenty of time for confronting the failures of Afghanistan policy over the course of 4 presidencies. The urgency of the moment now demands we marshal an international coalition to evacuate every Afghan citizen who is fleeing for their lives.

By James North ,mondoweiss.net

The post Afghanistan tragedy should end calls for ‘regime change’ in Iran appeared first on Nejat Society.