I am Bakhshali Alizade.
I was born in 1964.
I was born in Tehran.
…one day, thy took me to a meeting chaired by Massoud Rajavi. From what he said I concluded that in order to overthrow the IRIB we had to divorce our families…
.. in order to force us not to go and see our families they tried to mar the image of our families by calling them “ Ministry’s families” which meant our families were agents of Iran’s Ministry of intelligence..
When my father came, he wished to see me after 17-18 years and I wished to see him as well ….
I was realized that the organization was not to recognize the family at all…
Here you can watch Mr. Alizade’s father at Camp Ashraf Gates before Bakhshali could release himself from the cult barriers:
Hot Topics
The Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ the Cult of Rajavi) is not in the western lists of terrorist groups rather it is designated as a terrorist organization by Iran and Iraq. The documented history of the MEK indicates that it has committed several acts of violence against civilian and has been involved in massacring innocent people of Iraq and Iran. It has carried out bombings against the Iranian shah’s government in the 1970s and later against Iran’s post-revolution Islamist rulers in the 1980s and 1990s. The United States designated MEK as a terrorist organization in 1997, citing those attacks, including 1970s-era bombings that killed several U.S. contractors.
However, the MEK was removed from the terrorist list in 2012 following a heavy multi-million dollar campaign and lobbying by prominent American figures. Their reason for delisting of the group was based on the group’s alleged renunciation of violence. Yet, there are many reasons to consider the MEK as a terrorist group.
1. The MEK’s army structure
In June 1981, the MEK leaders announced armed struggle against the Iranian government. This date is celebrated every year by the group glorifying the start of armed struggle against Iranians who soon became the target of this terrorist army. The MEK established a military force which was financially and logistically supported by Saddam Hussein. Actually they formed”Saddam’s private army”but they named it”National Liberation Army”.
Units of the so-called NLA received military training and eventually launched several cross border operations against Iran killing a large number of Iranian civilians and governmental figures. They aided Saddam Hussein in suppressing Kurdish and Shiite uprisings. Maryam Rajavi is notoriously known for telling her forces:”Take the Kurds under your tanks; save your bullets for Iranian revolutionary guards”.
The MEK is still directed in a hierarchical army structure. There are various units of an army like battalion, brigade, division and commanders who are appointed to control the rank and file. This army was physically armed until the fall of Saddam Hussein. Then, the US military decided to disarm the group.
The MEK was apparently disarmed but the military structure did not change. The MEK’s cult-like structure did not allow members to think freely out of the army establishment.
2. The MEK’s cult-like structure
Although the MEK is not officially called a cult but it has been repeatedly considered a cult-like organization. It was first called”The cult of Rajavi”by Elizabeth Rubin the correspondent of the New York Times Magazine who wrote a documented report of the life in Camp Ashraf, Iraq after she visited the camp in 2003. Rubin was allowed to interview the rank and file observing their daily routine life in the Camp. Eventually, she published a detailed report of what she called”a fictional world of female worker bees”even though the group’s leaders had tried hard to show off a nice portrait of the life in the camp for Rubin.
Since then, there have been various reports, testimonies and documentaries that confirmed Rubin’s article on group’s cult-like behavior, consequently the group is now widely regarded as a cult. Report commissioned by the US Defense Department (RAND Report), based on interviews within Camp Ashraf, later concluded that the MEK had”many of the typical characteristics of a cult, such as authoritarian control, confiscation of assets, sexual control (including mandatory divorce and celibacy), emotional isolation, forced labour, sleep deprivation, physical abuse and limited exit options”.
Cult-like structure of the MEK has been established around the personality of its couple leaders Massoud and Maryam Rajavi. They are considered as absolute leaders to whom the rank and file should dedicate their life. According to the group’s regulations, members are constantly brainwashed and indoctrinated to sacrifice themselves not only for the cause of the group but also for the leaders.
3. MEK Members always prepared to commit suicide
MEK’s violent past is coincident with their suicide operations. From the early years of armed struggle, MEK operators were always ready to commit suicide. They were trained to swallow the cyanide capsule in case they were at risk of being arrested. In several assassination operations the MEK member had to commit suicide in order to kill his victim. For example, in December 1981 woman named Gohar Adab-Avaz killed the representative of Ayatollah Khomeini in Shiraz, Abdol Hossein Dastgheib in a suicide attack in Shiraz. She was praised by MEK propaganda as a”Great Mujahed”.
The cult jargon that requires members to commit suicide got its top notch when Maryam Rajavi was arrested by French Police alongside some 150 MEK members for preparing to commit or finance acts of terrorism in June 2003. A dozen of MEK members set themselves on fire to protest the arrest of their leader”Sister Maryam”. Two women named Neda Hassani and Sedighe Mojaveri died from the injuries. They were then glorified as”martyrs”by the group’s propaganda.
It is normally expected that those few thousand Mujahed members who are residing in Albania now have been coerced to commit suicide and/or homicide whenever the group orders them to do so.
4. Having no public support the MEK has to resort to violence
As Saddam’s private army, under their disillusioned leader Massoud Rajavi, the MEK staged attacks against civilian and military targets across the border in Iran and helped Saddam to suppress his own domestic enemies. But after siding with Saddam – who was in a bloody war with Iran that cost the lives of thousands Iranians – the MEK lost almost all the support it had inside Iran. Members are now widely regarded as traitors.
The new Iranian generations hardly ever know who the MEK are. However, their parents and grandparents remember the group’s atrocities against their own country fellow men which is a good reason for their hatred against the group. Therefore, the MEK is so notoriously known inside Iran that it can never enjoy the support of Iranian public thoughts.
Nevertheless the MEK claims that its main objective is the overthrow of the Iranian regime. Maryam Rajavi uses a controversial expression: peaceful regime change. How can she succeed to change the regime in Tehran peacefully without the support of the Iranian people? It is absolutely undisputable that the group has to resort to violence in order to achieve its objective as it has been involved in recent violent acts against Iranian nuclear scientists.
5. MEK a proxy force for enemies of Iran
After the collapse of the MEK’s main sponsor, Saddam Hussein, the group tended to offer services to super powers such as the United States and Israel. The group cooperated with the Israeli Intelligence agency Mossad to assassinate the Iranian nuclear scientists. NBC News reported that the MEK agents were Mossad’s operational arms to injure and kill a dozen of the Iranian scientists.
It was also investigated by Seymour Hersh of the New Yorker, that the MEK operators received spying, military and other special trainings in Nevada desert, the United States, under the command of the US military.
This indicates that the MEK has still the capacity to commit acts of violence. Actually, the MEK members have turned into brainwashed bombers, assassins and suicides. They should be considered terrorists.
Thirst for blood
The US-backed Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) has a dark history of assassinations and bombings targeting both Iranian statesmen and people, making the country one of the major victims of terrorism in the world.
The dying group, which is listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community, had collaborated with the former US-backed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during his imposed war on Iran in the 1980s in addition to killing as many as 12,000 Iranians in a violent campaign of terrorist bombings.
Despite the group’s gruesome terror campaign early after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, the MKO was effectively neutralized in the country and forced to seek refuge in Iraq under the protection of Saddam Hussein.
Known to most other countries by another acronym, the MEK, the terrorist group is financed by the Saudis, publicized by the Israelis and following America’s agenda.
Removing its decade-long ban on the MKO, the United States has used the group as a tool to pressure Iran over the past years.
Despite US and Saudi attempts to empower the MKO, the cult-like group’s activities have been largely limited to its now aging pool of members who had originally joined the group in the 1970’s and 1980’s.
According to the British daily The Guardian, the MKO is even known to rely on busing refugees and young eastern Europeans to fill up its lavish events in Europe, where most of the group’s members are known to reside.
The group throws lavish conferences every year in Paris, with certain American, Western, and Saudi officials as its guests of honor.
These include former US national security advisor John Bolton, US President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, and former Saudi Arabian spy chief, Prince Turki al-Faisal.
US President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani has attended an event held by notorious MKO terrorists in Paris and called for regime change in Iran.
The group is well-known for its reliance on fake social media profiles to push for its Washington-backed anti-Iran agenda.
Last year, Iranian Foreign Minster Mohammad Javad Zarif slammed Twitter for blocking social media accounts of”real Iranians”while overlooking social media influence operations coming from”actual bots in Tirana,”referring to the group’s large complex near the Albanian capital.
Amid the Trump Administration’s heightened rhetoric and campaign of”maximum pressure”against Iran, the MKO has also sought to gain further support from Washington and its allies by expanding its anti-Iran operations.
Back in June, an unverified audio tape leaked from the organization suggested the group may have colluded with foreign powers in carrying out mysterious explosions targeting two oil tankers in the Persian Gulf in June.
The terrorist group also announced a plan to assassinate commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Qassem Soleimani and the country’s new Judiciary chief Ebrahim Raeisi.
Reports have also shown that the Saudi intelligence agency has provided the MKO with vast funding, especially since main elements of the group were purged from their old bastion in Iraq more than a decade ago.
An ex-member of the anti-Iran MKO terror group details the Saudi transfer of almost $200 million worth of gold to the notorious outfit.
The MKO was once listed as a terrorist organization in the US and Europe and is still widely viewed as a Marxist cult built around the personality of its leader, Maryam Rajavi.
Some of its uncouth practices include forcing the group’s male members to divorce their wives and have them married to Rajavi’s husband Massoud.
The terrorist group is also known for its extremely suppressive control over members in its camps where access to the Internet and other information sources is prohibited.
Promotion of terror by false harbinger of peace
While Saudi Arabia proclaims itself as a harbinger of peace in the region and around the world, its crimes recorded in various parts of the world well illustrate its full support for “global terrorism”.
Nowadays Saudi Arabia has been taking a different stance trying to show itself as a supporter of peace in the region to cover up its crimes as one of the main supporters of global terrorism.
In order to divert public opinion from focusing on their crimes in different places, the Saudis are also trying to address the public opinion that the Islamic Republic of Iran and the resistance groups in the region are the promoters of terrorism.
Support for ISIL and al-Qaeda
Saudi Arabia is currently the reason for killing people in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, and even Lebanon because of its expanded support of terrorist groups in recent years. Its support for the ISIL Takfiri terrorist group in recent years, especially in Syria and Iraq, has caused the killing of thousands of civilians, including women and children.
Diplomatic documents leaked by the Qatari Embassy in Washington on 26 October 2016, showed also the support of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan for some al-Qaeda and ISIL terrorist leaders in Yemen.
According to the documents, the two crown princes of Saudi Arabia and UAE have been in constant contact with two of Al-Qaeda affiliated members Al-Hassan Ali Abkar and Abdullah Faisal al-Ahdel. The documents provide details of the activities of two al-Qaeda commanders as well as direct donations from Saudi intelligence chief Khalid bin Ali Al Humaidan to purchase supplies and give to ISIL members.
In this regard, Shireen Tahmaasb Hunter, a professor of political science at Georgetown University in the US believes that Saudi Wahhabi ideology is a key factor in the formation of the ISIL Takfiri terrorist group.
Full-fledged defense of ‘state terrorism’
Saudi Arabia has always been a strong supporter of the Zionist regime over the past decades as a prominent example of promoting”state terrorism”. It normalizes relations with Israel faster than other Arab countries. This is the same issue that the Zionists have mentioned on many occasions without referring directly to Saudi Arabia.
Moreover, a series of secret meetings between Saudi officials and the Zionist regime’s indicate that the Al-Saud has associated with the Zionist regime the most prominent example of “state terrorism”.
In this connection, on the sidelines of a recent UN General Assembly meeting in New York City, Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir secretly met with Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz.
Trade and military exchanges between the Zionist regime and Saudi Arabia are also among other areas of close relations between the two sides, which have made the Zionists more insolence in killing Palestinians.
According to what has been said, the Saudi authorities will undoubtedly play a major role in continuing the terrorist acts of the Zionist regime in the occupied territories against the Palestinians by defending “state terrorism” of the Zionist regime.
Establishment of a terrorist coalition against the Yemeni people
The establishment of a terrorist coalition against the defenseless and innocent Yemeni people is another Saudi activity in promoting terrorism and extremism in the region and around the world. Saudi Arabia formed a coalition of 17 countries to attack Yemen illegally and brutally in 2015. Since then, the Saudis have martyred thousands of people and injured hundreds in Yemen.
Its aggressive attacks on innocent Yemeni people in the form of a terrorist and illegal coalition have already caused fatal blows to the poorest Arab country. They also bombed all the medical centers. This has caused 80% of medical centers in Yemen to fail to provide medical services.
Because of the series of crimes against Yemeni people, even the former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, put Saudi Arabia on the list of Yemeni children’s rights violations. But threatened by Saudi authorities to cut funding to the UN, made him withdraw from his decision.
Support for MEK and the Ba’ath regime
The history of the terrorist activities of the terrorist group, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) is obvious to everyone which killed many Iranians in the early years of the victory of the Islamic Revolution. However, Saudi Arabia is one of the main supporters of MEK, and at the same time proclaims itself a harbinger of peace in the region and around the world and accuses others of supporting terrorism.
According to Norwegian media, the Saudi Embassy in France pays all expenses for holding the annual conference of the MEK terrorist group in Paris.
The Saudis also continue to support the remnants of the Ba’ath regime in Iraq. Saudi ambassador to Jordan Khaled bin Faisal Al-Saud has met and held talks with Raghad Hussein daughter of Saddam Hussein, the former president of Iraq in Amman, according to media.
During the meeting, the two sides discussed the latest developments in Iraq and how to further provoke protests against the Baghdad government and create chaos in Iraq. It is said that the Saudi ambassador to Jordan has offered an invitation to Raghad Hussein to attend a meeting on Iraq which will be held in Riyadh in the coming month.
What has been said is only a small fraction of Saudi Arabia’s support for terrorism around the world, and there are now numerous reports of Saudi Arabia’s promotion of terrorism, Wahhabism and extremism in East Asia and Africa.
By Ramin Hossein Abadian,
Dear Ilir Meta, Albanian President,
Your Excellency,
We are a group of former MEK members. We have separated from this organization and have lived with all due respect for the laws of your country for several years now. We have pursued our personal lives as civilians in Albania and that is why we left the MEK who have been abusing us for many, many years.
We came to your country legally and have not acted contrary to its laws and we are bound by its laws. That is why we expect to be treated with dignity and to be treated in accordance with the laws.
Unfortunately, we are witnessing some acts that concern us, including a recent case of a friend of ours, Ehsan Bidi, who has been disrespected by your police, arrested and taken to prison without access to a lawyer or any legal advice. He doesn’t even have the right to visits.
Ehsan Bidi has lived in your country for 6 years, has a 10-year residency permit from the Albanian government and is a refugee by all international standards. He, as a human being, has the right to know why and with what legal authority and with what permission and for what crime he has been arrested, and he has the right to a fair trial and to defend himself. A right that that is accorded to all people in all the civilized countries of the world.
We are sure that the plot to detain Mr Bidi was designed by the Mojahedin Khalq Organization and those who took bribes from this organization. We have received information that commanders in the MEK announced in a meeting that they had planned for Ehsan Bidi to be arrested and that this would be carried out by their friends in the Albanian government, and that they would carry out the same plan for the remaining former members who do not cooperate with us.
Europe’s Extreme Right Is In Bed With MEK (Mojahedin Khalq and Alejo Vidal-Quadras)
Mr President,
On Friday September 13, you visited the MEK camp, but we know that you have been misinformed about this organization. We have enough information about this organization and its dreadful internal relations, and whenever you request it we are ready to present this information to you; the MEK is a terrorist and inhumane organization that does not even have mercy on its members. We have all been members of this organization for decades and are well acquainted with its cruel, inhuman and mafia-like functions.
This organization does not have mercy on us, people who have spent our lives with them and served them all those years and who only seek now to pursue our lives as ordinary civilians because we refuse to further sacrifice our lives for the anti-Iranian goals of this organization.
Mr President,
As your country prepares to accede to the European Union, we urge you, as the national symbol and supreme supporter of law and human rights of Albania, to support us the victims of the plots of this organization. In the name of humanity please prevent this injustice, and do not allow the rights of the innocent to be harmed.
Our kind regards and best wishes for you,
1- Mohammad Azim Mishmast
2- Hadi Sani Khani
3- Hassan Heyrani
4- Abdolrahman Mohammadian
5- Hassan Shahbaz
6- Ali Hajari
7- Ehsan Bidi
8- Gholam Mirzai
9- Malek bit Mashal
10- Moussa Damroudi
11- Gholamreza shekari
12- Parviz Heydarzade
iran-azadi-albania.info
A Canadian-Albanian researcher revealed on Saturday that the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as the MEK, PMOI and NCRI) sets its defected members up in plots to frame them as agents of Iran.
Canadian-Albanian historian Dr. Olsi Jazexhi released a video of his interview with several individuals who said they had defected the MKO, but were now being framed by the terrorist group as Iranian agents sent to attack the camp near Durres, Albania’s main port.
Albanian police on Wednesday claimed that they had foiled planned attacks by Iranian agents against the MKO, but several former members of the group have come forward to reveal that they are the real individuals being accused of the plot.
Since 2014, some 3,000 MKO members have settled in a camp in Albania after being transferred by the US from Iraq. Earlier this week, Albanian authorities claimed that they had discovered an active cell of the Iranian Quds Force and prevented their”plan of March 2018″to attack the camp.
In March 2018, two people were held in Albania but set free for lack of evidence. At the time, an opposition leader denounced the announcement as a ploy by Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama to divert attention from Tirana’s failure to start entry talks with the European Union.
The accusation was similar to those made against Iran in Europe, including by France in October 2018 which accused Tehran of plotting to attack an annual MKO rally outside Paris.
The timing of the accusations was suspicious. They came as European governments apparently sought to save a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran after the US abandoned the agreement.
From the outset, Tehran vehemently dismissed the claims as false flag operations, while those detained in connection with the alleged plots were released later due to lack of evidence.
Jazexhi, who carried out the interview, explained that a “cold war” is underway in Albania between former MKO members and the ringleaders of the terrorist organization.
Jazexhi, who specializes in the history of Islam, nationalism and religious reformation in Southeastern Europe, described those speaking in the interview as former terrorists who have abandoned terrorism against Iran and decided to lead a civilian life.
He has already aired a TV show called the “Opinion” in Albania, which said the MKO runs its own secret service in the impoverished European country, and that it spies on former members of the organization who live there.
A former member of the MKO in the video, labelled as an agent of Iran, is heard saying, “I don’t want to fight anything, any side. I want my own life, personal life, civilian life and I don’t want to fight.”
“For this reason, the MKO does not want us to live here. They put pressure on us to leave this country because if another member in the MKO comes out for anything or any work and see us we have a free [life], maybe they want to come out and have a free life. For this they make fake news against us, accuse us of being agents and mercenary of Iran,” the man says.
Last year, Albania expelled two Iranian diplomats suspected of “involvement in activities that harm the country’s security.”
Iran denounced the expulsions, saying Albania has fallen prey to a scenario fabricated by the US and Israel and certain terrorist groups.
The MKO is listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community. Its members fled Iran in 1986 for Iraq, where they received support from then dictator Saddam Hussein.
The notorious outfit has carried out numerous attacks against Iranian civilians and government officials for several decades.
In 2012, the US State Department removed the MKO from its list of designated terrorist organizations under intense lobbying by groups associated to Saudi Arabia and other regimes adversarial to Iran.
A few years ago, MKO members were relocated from their Camp Ashraf in Iraq’s Diyala Province to Camp Hurriyet (Camp Liberty), a former US military base in Baghdad, and were later sent to Albania.
Those members, who have managed to escape, have revealed MKO’s scandalous means of access to money, almost exclusively coming from Saudi Arabia.
The MKO terrorist group specified the targets as Major General Qassem Soleimani, who commands the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and Iranian Judiciary Chief Seyed Ebrahim Rayeesi.
The terrorist organization said it would “welcome” their assassination, adding that it desired for the ranking officials to “join” Asadollah Lajevardi, Tehran’s former chief prosecutor, and Ali Sayyad-Shirazi, a former commander of the Iranian Army’s Ground Forces during Iraq’s 1980-88 war against Iran.
Earlier in June, a leaked audio of a phone conversation between two members of MKO, revealed Saudi Arabia has colluded with the MKO elements to frame Iran for the recent tanker attacks in the Persian Gulf.
In the audio Shahram Fakhteh, an official member and the person in charge of MKO’s cyber operations, is heard talking with a US-based MKO sympathizer named Daei-ul-Eslam in Persian, IFP news reported.
In this conversation, the two elements discuss the MKO’s efforts to introduce Iran as the culprit behind the recent tanker attacks in the Persian Gulf, and how the Saudis contacted them to pursue the issue.
“In the past week we did our best to blame the [Iranian] regime for the (oil tanker) blasts. Saudis have called Sister Maryam (Rajavi)’s office to follow up on the results, [to get] a conclusion of what has been done, and the possible consequences,” Fakhteh is heard saying.
“I guess this can have different consequences. It can send the case to the UN Security Council or even result in military intervention. It can have any consequence,” Daei-ul-Eslam says.
Attacks on two commercial oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman on June 13, and an earlier attack on four oil tankers off the UAE’s Fujairah port on May 12, have escalated tensions in the Middle East and raised the prospect of a military confrontation between Iran and the United States.
The US, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE have rushed to blame Iran for the incidents, with the US military releasing a grainy video it claimed shows Iranian forces in a patrol boat removing an unexploded mine from the side of a Japanese-owned tanker which caught fire earlier this month.
It later released some images of the purported Iranian operation after the video was seriously challenged by experts and Washington’s own allies.
The MKO which is said to be a cult which turns humans into obedient robots, turned against Iran after the 1979 Revolution and has carried out several terrorist attacks killing senior officials in Iran; yet the West which says cultism is wrong and claims to be against terrorism, supports this terrorist group officially.
After the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the MKO began its enmity against Iran by killings and terrorist activities.
Following the Canadian federal elections, The Iranian Canadian Congress (ICC) reported about”a smear campaign linked to Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) against Iranian-Canadian MP and Richmond Hill candidate Majid Jowhari.”[1]
Liberal Majid Jowhari was re-elected, beating out the Conservative candidate Costas Menegakis who is supported by the Mujahedin Khalq Organization for his rivalry with Jowhari! ICC clarifies MEK’s smear campaign against Mr. Jowhari:
“On social media, fake accounts associated with MEK have distributed false information about Mr. Jowhari. Seemingly, the only reason behind the targeting of Mr. Jowhari by the MEK is that, aligned with PM Trudeau’s promise in 2015 to re-engage with Iran and reopen the embassies, Mr. Jowhari supported this promise as well and presented the views of his constituents to the Canadian government. Time and again we have also witnessed that the majority of Canadian-Iranians also support diplomacy and peace with Iran and are against policies of sanctions and war.”[2]
The very representative of the fake accounts associated with the MEK was denounced just a few months ago by Murteza Hussain of the Intercept. Morteza revealed that a character named Heshmat Alavi appears non existing but rather is a persona, a propaganda operation run by the MEK. Murteza’s revelations was widely covered by the main stream media and consequently Twitter suspended the account for a period but it was then reinstated. [3]
Heshmat Alavi was actively attacking before the reelection of the Iranian Canadian liberal candidate Majid Jowhari. This is one of the tweets of a thread of tweets that Alavi launched against Jowhari:
“@MajidJowhari , a Liberal MP in Canada known for his pro-#Iran regime views & policies, is up for reelection. This thread sheds light on Jowhari being a Tehran apologist/lobbyist, supported by @ICCongress , the mullahs’ lobby arm in Canada, and should not be reelected.”
Fortunately Jowhari won the election. However, the so-called Heshmat Alavi is the outcome of a team work by the MEK members who slur each and every person who advocates for peace and diplomacy with Iran. This team never stops demonizing all those who believe in engagement rather than war and sanctions and Jowhari is not the first person who is slammed with the tweets and previously published articles by fictional personas like Heshmat Alavi.
Negar Mortazavi consultant editor of The Independent and Trita Parsi founder of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) are also some of other activists with Iranian origin that have been attacked by Alavi several times.
Jeremy Scahill is an investigative reporter and one of the three founding editors of The Intercept. In his podcast which was published a few days after Murtaza’s article, Scahill asked Negar Mortazavi to explain more about his colleague’s revelations.”What more can you tell us about this persona that Murtaza’s reporting indicates is a creation of the MEK, Heshmat Alavi?”, he asked Negar. [4]
“Murtaza actually talked to me and a few other Iran watchers”, Negar replied.”For us who observed Heshmat Alavi and who are the targets of Heshmat Alavi’s smear attacks for quite long time, it was obvious that this doesn’t seem like a real person. There was no photo of him. There was no video of him. There was all these murky articles. And also this clear line, if you look through his work, it wasn’t subtle, this clear, pro-MEK, as you said Mojahedin-e-Khalq line throughout his work. His articles, also his tweets, and also the way he attacks so many of us on Twitter. But it was a complete failure on the part of some credible media organizations.”[5]
“The goal of the project was ostensibly to fight Iranian propaganda online but, instead, the initiative focused on attacking critics of the Trump administration’s Iran policy”, Trita Parsi also told Aljazeera. [6]
“To make it worse, the fund that came from the State Department was actually designed to fight ISIS propaganda and Russian interference in the United States. Instead, the Trump administration diverted that money to fight critics of Trump’s Iran policy,”Parsi explained about financial resources of the MEK’s troll farm in social media. [7]
“Evidence of MEK machinations are substantiated by online campaigns intended to influence the narrative on Iran in favor of regime change,”Assal Rad a research fellow at NIAC wrote on Lobelog.”Former MEK members have confirmed the operation of MEK troll farms based in Albania, where members create thousands of inauthentic accounts and promote hashtags, propaganda, and tweets targeting anyone that favors diplomacy with Iran. The group also uses front organizations, like the OIAC, to take out paid ads that advance its cause at the expense of U.S. security interests in the region.”[8]
Actually, Heshmat Alavi’s persona is not the first one nor the last one that MEK has created to manipulate the social network running war mongers’ agenda against Iran. The MEK’s survival is based on more and more conflicts between the world and Iranian government. The MEK leaders do not care that the Iranian people are awfully impacted by the maximum pressure strategy that they support against Iran.
Mazda Parsi
References:
[1] ICC secretory, ICC Condemns Foreign-Linked Smear Campaign Against Richmond Hill MP Majid Jowhari, Iranain Canadian Congress, Iranain Canadian Congress Website, October 18th, 2019.
[2] ibid
[3] Hussain, Murtaza, An Iranian Activist Wrote Dozens of Articles for Right-Wing Outlets. But Is He a Real Person?, The Intercept, June 9th, 2019.
[4]Scahill, Jeremy, Intercepted Podcast: Donald Trump, Iran, and the Gulf of Tonkin Redux, the Intercept, October 22th, 2019.
[5] ibid
[6] Aljazeera, US-Iran tensions, trolls and the dubious case of Heshmat Alavi, June 18th, 2019.
[7] ibid
[8] Rad, Assal, Propaganda War to Real War: The MEK’s Treacherous Operation, Lobelog, July 1st, 2019.
A Film About MEK History
Filmmaker emerges to bring dramas from Iran political history to life
“I was born during the war, which had lasted for so long that I thought that it would be forever and would never end. When I heard people talking about the frontline I imagined it was a geographical location like a sea or a forest near the borderlines of each country where the war took place. We were in our childhood, experiencing a certain way of life. We chanted slogans in the schools and talked about certain issues and heard about subjects from the media that deeply influenced our hearts and minds. Today, the experiences of those years caused me to be interested in returning to those years with new feelings and perceptions, which come from awareness, and I want to recollect the memories of those years again.”
Mohammad-Hossein Mahdavian made the remarks during the Fajr Film Festival in Tehran in February after the premiere of his latest political thriller, “Trace of Blood”, which is currently on screen at Iranian theaters.
Perhaps nobody imagined that a filmmaker of political thrillers was being born in the new wave of Iranian cinema in 2016 when Mahdavian made his debut feature “Standing in the Dust” at 34.
The film recounted the life story of Ahmad Motevasselian, an IRGC commander who was kidnapped by the Zionist regime in 1982 in Lebanon.
The choice of subject matter was viewed by critics as an easy and clever way for the newcomer to obtain approval for the film from Iranian cultural officials.
At the time, the film was produced at the Owj Arts and Media Organization, a Tehran-based institution that produces revolutionary works in art and cinema. Nowadays, the projects that the organization supports no longer face burdensome bureaucratic hurdles imposed by the state.
“‘Standing in the Dust’ was the most customized movie I have ever made, and was my most popular film and also received critics acclaim,” Mahdavian told the Persian daily Sharq after the premiere of “Trace of Blood”.
“‘Lottery’ was my most independently produced film, but it failed to satisfy the critics,” he added.
A year later, Mahdavian’s second movie, “The Midday Event” on the terrorist activities of the Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) in Iran in the 1980s, demonstrated his passion for factual political stories taken from modern Iranian history.
In this film, the new government, after toppling the Shah in 1979, assembles a security group to fight against MKO’s terrorist attacks in 1982.
His third film, “Lottery” about trafficking Iranian women to the United Arab Emirates was viewed as regressive by critics.
“I have the courage to make a film and accept the negative reviews. But what urges me to continue on this path is the people for whom I make the films,” he noted.
“Trace of Blood”, also known as “Blood Trap”, is a sequel to “The Midday Event”. In this film, Iranian security forces come together in 1988 to trace the MKO’s undercover agents, which had penetrated the security forces in 1982. They also want to foil Operation Eternal Light, which the MKO carried out against Iran with the full support of the Iraqi dictator, Saddam.
The stories of “The Midday Event” and “Trace of Blood” were set in the 1980s when Mahdavian and Ebrahim Amini, with whom he co-wrote the screenplays for the films, were only children.
However, in an interview with Mahdavian, veteran critic Hushang Golmakani, who works for the Persian monthly Film, called the details of the sets and dialogues of “Trace of Blood” perfect.
“The film has the potential to be biased, but it has maintained its balance. The film has very good dialogues and perfect ending,” Golmakani noted.
It appears that a perfect filmmaker who is genuinely skilled in transforming real political narratives into films has emerged. However, he wants to try his hand at other genres.
“There is no time to lose; life is too short and I haven’t made a lot of films. Certainly, I will try other genres—I don’t know when—but I want to try something different,” he said.
“If I find a different story appropriate enough to be turned into a film, of course I will make it. Once, I even wanted to make a film for children, because whenever we intend to take our children to the cinema, we can’t find films entertaining enough for children,” he added.
The social theme of the story in “Lottery” from his short but brilliant career reflected a shift. Centering on topics such as sex trafficking rings in Iran is a bit much for this cinema. His camera should be focused on major stories such as the Iran hostage crisis in 1979, which has been distorted by numerous biased movies from Iranian and foreign filmmakers, including Ben Affleck’s 2012 movie “Argo”.
Mahdavian seems to go his own way in filmmaking. He is clever enough to avoid joining specific currents, which tend to categorize everything by the rules of politics. His avoidance of these trends should help prevent him from being tagged as a governmental filmmaker.
By Seyyed Mostafa Mousavi Sabet
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.
Open letter by former MEK member, Reza Sadeghi Jaballi to Albanian President Ilir Meta
My name is Reza Sadeghi Jaballi. I am a former member of the MEK and a human rights activist living in Brussels. On June 1981, I was shot and later arrested by the Iranian security services and spent five years in prison in Iran including of two years in solitary confinement. Once freed, I left Iran and worked in the MEK’s financial section in Canada and the United States. I also spent many years in the MEK’s military garrison Camp Ashraf in Iraq.
Recently you visited the MEK Camp in Tirana. As a former member, I would like to bring to your attention that the latest EU-Western Balkans Ministerial Forum on Justice and Home Affairs, held in Tirana in October 2018, recognized that terrorism and radicalization remain a common challenge for the European Union and the Western Balkan region.
The ministers representing the European Union, signed the Joint Action Plan on Counter Terrorism for the Western Balkans. It calls on Western Balkan partners and the European Union to take ambitious action in order to reach their counter-terrorism objectives. Ministers discussed their common challenges in responding to the security threat posed by violent extremism and agreed to work together to address its root causes and to build resilient and cohesive societies.
Considering the MEK’s past forty years record of assassinations and terrorist activities in Iran, Iraq and Europe, as a former member I must emphasize that the MEK presence in Tirana is and will be one of the greatest threats to your country as well as the European Union and also one of the main obstacles for Albania’s accession to the European Union.
Dear Mr President,
You have just met with Maryam Rajavi who is considered by Iranians to be one of the worst and most violent mafia-like terrorist cult leaders in Iran’s recent history.
Several incidents between members of the MEK and local communities in Albania reveal the pernicious danger of their secret activities.
Channel 4, a highly reputable British television news channel, recently travelled to Albania to find out about the daily life of the MEK members. The film crew was greeted by hostile private security forces outside the fortified camp at Manëz. Camp members physically attacked the Channel 4 camera crew (Shqiptarja.com, August 19). It was an unprecedented event that raised many questions about the activities at and inside the camp (Lapsi.al, August 19).
The event was widely reported by local media, which was also able to obtain a threat assessment on the group by Albania’s Intelligence Agency.
A prominent Iraqi politician described the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK, also known as MKO, NCRI or PMOI) as a big cancerous tumor that Iraq had been afflicted with.
Olsi Jazexhi, an Albanian writer says “We are supposed to be living in a free and democratic country. But the MEK have built a state within a state that implements its own laws”.
Olsi Jazexhi : MEK Helping Albania Slide Toward AuthoritarianismOlsi Jazexhi : MEK Helping Albania Slide Toward Authoritarianism
MEP Ana Gomes speaking during the debate on Iran’s nuclear deal indicated “we must not turn a blind eye to the provocative activities of sects such as the MEK (Mojahedin-e Khalq), which act within this Parliament, and which last week even physically assaulted an opponent just outside the Parliament. This criminal act happened when the MEK leader Maryam Rajavi was in the Parliament. I demand from President Tajani the expulsion of MEK agents who work on EP premises. This is also a security matter for all of us”.
Martin Kobler, as head of UNAMI, tried to work out a solution in Iraq, but was “miserably” attacked by the MEK. He indicated “he could not get access to the members to find out what they wanted as individuals. The MEK would not allow the normal interviews that the UNHCR conduct”.
MEK behavior in Albania is like a mafia – breaking laws, blackmailing, paying people off, beating people, threatening defectors, accusing anyone who questions them of being an Iranian agent, controlling their members in the camp through Stalinist totalitarian methodology and not allowing members to call or visit their families.
In 2003, French anti-terrorism officers raided a dozen locations northwest of Paris in Auvers-sur-Oise, the MEK headquarters, at a time the MEK was classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Iran (1997-2012), and initially detained 165 people including the MEK leader Maryam Rajavi who immediately ordered a few members to burn themselves in protest in the streets of Europe. The attempts at self-immolation to protest against the arrest of Rajavi are proof of a fanaticism and terrorist group that does not respect our laws and our values.
Farid_Totounchi_Mahoutchi_MEK_Iraq_AlbaniaFarid Totounchi (Real name: Mahoutchi) Commander of Saddam’s Private army forcing Somayeh Mohammadi to do a “Forced confession” session in Terror camp in Albania
Dear President Meta,
The MEK was listed as a terrorist organization for a reason. It has carried out decades of brutal terrorist attacks, assassinations, and espionage against Iran’s government and its people (according to Rajavi’s own statement, the MEK killed more than 12000 people from 1981 to 1983), as well as targeting Americans including the attempted kidnapping of US Ambassador Douglas MacArthur II, the attempted assassination of USAF Brigadier General Harold Price, the successful assassination of Lieutenant Colonel Louis Lee Hawkins, the double assassinations of Colonel Paul Shaffer and Lieutenant Colonel Jack Turner, and the successful ambush and killing of American Rockwell International employees William Cottrell, Donald Smith, and Robert Krongard.
According to Ms Ebi Spahiu, the MEK presence in Albania – which continues to struggle with endemic corruption and organized crime and the emergence of religious radicalization as a regional security threat and potential sectarian rifts – may add to the list of challenges facing Albania’s political landscape.
In 2013 Maryam Rajavi said, we are going to Albania because it is a corrupt country and we will own this country in a short period of time, we have money and instead of paying few hundred thousand dollars to buy a western politician, there we can buy their president with one thousand dollars.
This is the true face of Maryam Rajavi.
Respectfully,
Reza Jaballi – Brussels