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Jebelli and Husseinejad at EUP
Albania

I can buy Albanian President for a thousand dollars; Maryam Rajavi

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

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US advicated of MEK Terrorists
Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

MEK’s paid speakers,”to be or not to be”

The latest news on US politics included a bad one for the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi). President Trump fired one of the most vocal supporters of the MEK, his national security advisor John Bolton because he”disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration”.

Bolton is notoriously known for his warmongering attitudes, especially, against Iran. He is well known for his op-ed in the New York Times in 2015, headlined:”To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran.”[1]
This extremely anti-Iran stance makes him sexy enough to get in bed with the MEK. That’s why after his departure from the White House all reports and analysis point out to his many appearances in the MEK’s events as a paid speaker.
“One group that is no doubt devastated by Bolton’s departure is the MEK — the Iranian exile group that wants regime change in Tehran, by force if necessary, and has paid Bolton & Rudy Giuliani to make speeches”, tweeted Edward Wong of the New York Times. [2]
Barbara Slavin, director of the Future of Iran Initiative at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank, welcomed Bolton’s departure from the administration.”Bolton is an absolutist; it’s all or nothing, black and white. He’s not very good at step-by-step or incremental agreements, and those are the only kinds of agreements that are realistic with adversaries,”Slavin told the Middle East Eye.”So I think he’s been a major impediment to diplomacy. He is a war-monger. He’s somebody who’s advocated for bombing Iran, as recently as this past summer, and he has ties with the Mujahideen-e Khalq, an Islamo-fascist cult. So I’m glad he’s out.”[3]
Jason Rezaian of the Washington Post states,”His absence also means that the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK), a reviled Iranian opposition group that long lived on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist groups, no longer has a powerful ally in the White House.”[4]
Rezaian truly suggests that the MEK’s money does mean more to Bolton compared with its almost no support among Iranians.”The MEK can claim no popular support, and among Iranians of nearly all political orientations, inside the country and in the diaspora, it was Bolton’s paid alliance with the cult-like group that made him such an odious character,”he writes. [5]
Daniel Larison of the American Conservative who had previously warned about Bolton’s paid sponsorship for the MEK, a few months earlier, in June, denounced Bolton’s policy towards Iran due to his notorious links with the Cult of Rajavi.”Bolton’s long relationship with the MEK discredits everything he has to say about Iran,”he wrote.”No one that has praised this cult as a potential replacement for the Iranian government should have anything to do with U.S. policymaking at any level, much less at the White House. No one foolish or fanatical enough to side with this cult should be entrusted with any government position.”[6]
Larison strictly warned about the MEK-Bolton dirty connections.”Bolton’s ties to the MEK should be mentioned in every story that reports on him and the administration’s Iran policy, but unfortunately they are only rarely included in media coverage,”he stated. [7]
“It is unacceptable for a top government official responsible for shaping U.S. foreign policy to have been the paid shill of this awful organization that previously killed Americans,”Larison continued.”It is wrong for an official with ties to the MEK to be influencing decisions on Iran policy. There are many reasons why Bolton should be fired, and this is right at the top of the list.”[8]
On September 10th, after Bolton’s departure, Daniel Larison published an article on The American Conservative, titled”Good Riddance, Bolton”in which he expresses his pleasure to the”good news”. According to the senior editor of TAC, as far as Bolton is not a member of the administration his ardent support for the MEK is not dangerous for the region.”He should never have been hired, but at least he is out of government. Now he can go shill for the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) full-time,”Larison suggests. [9]
Definitely, the Saudi funded establishment of the Mujahedin Khalq is able to buy the support of any warmonger figure in the US political scene but as far as the group is despised by the Iranian nation, its paid sponsors are not capable of running their agenda. To be or not to be in the US administration team will not make Bolton a proper person to run the MEK’s agenda. The MEK can keep on expending dollars to buy the support of American high profiles. However the will and determination of the Iranian nation is certainly against the will of the longtime traitors who fought alongside Saddam Hussein against their country fellow men and opened fire against innocent civilians in the Iranian cities.
By Mazda Parsi

References:
[1] Bolton, John, To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran, The New York Times, March 25, 2019.
[2] Abshenass, Emad, ‘I Rule the White House’: Will Bolton’s ouster help Trump facilitate US-Iran negotiations?, United World Data, September 15th, 2019.
[3] Middle East Eye, Trump sacks national security adviser John Bolton, September 10, 2019.
[4] Rezaian, Jason, Bolton’s departure will fundamentally alter Trump’s Iran policy, The Washington Post, September 10, 2019.
[5] ibid
[6] Larison, Daniel, Bolton’s Relationship with the MEK Is a Scandal, The American Conservative, June 6th, 2019.
[7] ibid
[9] Larison, Daniel, Good Riddance, Bolton, The American Conservative, September 10th, 2019.

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Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Mujahedin-e Khalq assassinated US officers

Identifying the Experts of Secret Mission
In the midst of the attacks that SAVAK brought to Marxist armed groups in the spring and summer of 1976, including the active elements of the MKO, they got killed or arrested, the MKO’s leadership decided to take a dramatic and effective military action.

Assassination of Three American Advisers  

The analysis of the leaders of the organization was based on the fact that after the deadly attacks to the MKO, and the Fadaian1, they had to – in the first place – express their effective existence, and, secondly, – put the Pahlavi regime in a complex array of armed movements .

Along with this matter, at last, the assassination of three American advisers in Iran was designed and carried out by Mojahedin. These advisers were experts in the field of electronic equipment that led the installation and operation of complex eavesdropping systems in the form of a series of designs in ((Kabkan)), that is located on the border between Iran and the Soviet Union. According to the available information, the basic information about these three spies was most likely transmitted to the Mojahedin by the Soviet government2.

The Process of Assassinations

During the identification operations to carry out assassinations, the exact route of the car movement got identified. According to information obtained from the operational units of the organization, they traversed Tehranpars (the intersection of Damavand Avenue, known as the Tehran-Pars three ways) every morning between 7:00 and 7:20 minutes, and near the intersection of Narmak thirty meters, passing from Khayyam avenue (one of the neighboring streets of Vosuq Square). Therefore, it was decided that the MKO’s operational layout be arranged in this area and at a specific point on Khayyam Street.

According to the plan, a Volkswagen truck was used for traffic jams and one more car to escape. Additionally, the weapons gathered in compare with the individuals presented on the operation. This terrorist operation is described by Abedini as follows:

“Operation Day”, [1976/08/28] all work was done in accordance with the schedule. The driver of the motorcycle and the person who was with him were marked with a positive signal. The team got ready. Attack layout was done. The car was turned by the driver who should make the traffic, a few moments later the car carrying the advisors appeared on the street, and the driver stopped the car. The driver of the advisers felt that something is going on and turned the steering wheel to his right, but because of the narrow street he couldn’t do anything and the way got closed.

Commander surrendered the driver and made him to put his head under the dashboard then the machine gunner shot the bullets toward Americans. The front man (Robert Krongard) committed to run away after being hit, he came out of the car and went toward the side walk but machine gunner followed him and while he fell into the gutter, finished him. Meanwhile the driver who should make traffic, should get out and support the machine gunners and should stand beside them while machine gunner can dead shot the two Americans behind, and again give the machinegun to the traffic driver and ran toward the scape car. This part of the operation, that was the main part, was done completely (except two parts) and car moved in the identified way. After a distance one of the members got out and removed the fake car number and again continued to move. After a while two members got out and the driver went to Khorasan square with scape car, while the bags of the advisors were also in the car. He put the scape car in one of the alleys of Khorasan square and transferred the equipment to another car, which had already been put there, and move the new car to the base, where the equipment had to be taken there. And in this way the operation ended.3”

Members of the operation team of assassination of three advisors are:

Hosein SiyahKolah (Kazem) the commander of the operation;
Mehdi Fathi (Vahid) deputy commander and in fact executive commander of the scene of operation; (the first machine gunner)
Mohsen Tarighat (Mahmoud) the second machine gunner
Ghasem Abedini (Asgar)traffic driver and driver of scape car
Shahram Mohammadian Bajgiran (Javad) motor driver and marker
Gholamhosein Sahebekhtiari (shamsollah-Asghar) the motor cyclist and marker4

From the very next day, the details and descriptions of this assassination, with more details of the victims (with an emphasis on their military identity), were published in newspapers and it was announced that the American bodies were transferred to California.5
Quality of operation

One of the differences between this assassination and other terror operations of the Mujahedin organization was that it was used handy machineguns for killing the targets this time. Other assassinations – generally – were carried with pistols, and the reason was clear: having large machineguns was in contradiction with the security and destroys the security of the team. But in this particular case, the use of Kalashnikov’s machinegun was on the agenda. Typically, machineguns were used to defend team houses, but Fadaian guerrillas used it in operations, but smaller and lighter ones, such as the ((Shi)) machine gun, which made by France.

SAVAK review results

One of SAVAK’s first reports about the assassination of three advisors of IBEX was as follows:

“As mentioned before, on the 7 o’clock of 1976/08/28, 6 members of the Mojahedin-e-Khalq group (Islamic Marxist) blocked the way with a Volkswagen of the three American citizens residing in Tehran with the name of ((Robert Krongard, William Cotrell and Donald Smith)) that cooperating with Iran Imperial Air Force while transferring to their work place and killed three of them with machinegun and pistol and left their car and ran from the crime scene. Investigation done regarding the terror of three mentioned advisors shows that the executive members of this terror had enough intelligence of their status and jobs. With the regard that the parts that military and nonmilitary American advisors were doing their services were always on special interest of members of intelligence services of Soviet Union and mentioned three advisors were working in a sector that has high sensitivity, this is concluded that the mentioned information and identification have done by members of the Soviet Union intelligence service.6”

Source: MKO organization: Founding till the end (1965-2005), Second volume, In an effort by a team of researchers, the Institute of Political Studies and Research publication

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some one is absent here
The cult of Rajavi

Someone is absent here

In this documentary Mr.Bashiri narrates the story of his life and how he lost his wife…
My name is Alireza Bashiri. I was born in Ahwaz. I am 52. I live in Sweden with my daughter and her son.

After marriage, I told my wife that I’d like to go abroad and live in another country
My wife was just 17 and myself around 22 or 23. I didn’t have that much experience. We decided to go to Europe from Turkey. We went from Turkey to Germany. We sought asylum.
We spent around 2 years in a refugee camp.
The MKO members were very active there …

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Massoud Rajavi
Massoud Rajavi

MEK leaders want Rajavi’s soul to dominate their troll factory

The rise of rulers with absolute power in Europe and Asia led to World War II. The totalitarian systems of Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot and other relied largely on mass terror and indoctrination. Although today we live in a more democratic world with less ideological systems to rule people, there are still cult-like groups that are ruled by dictators. Cults of personalities such as the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI) use considerable violence to intimidate dissidents inside the cult.

In a totalitarian system like the one in the MEK, individuals have no rights, and the leaders suppress all opposition. However, the MEK tries to stimulate democracy using it as a tool to legitimize authority, consolidate power, and repress its members. The self-assigned president of the group Maryam Rajavi is called”president elect”to suggest that she was elected by the group’s parliament in exile, the so-called National Council of Resistance (NCRI). Actually, NCRI is 98 percent consisted of MEK members, no other fractions of Iranian political spectrum is included. She was indeed elected by Massoud Rajavi and other members had no way but agreeing with his decision.

Maryam Rajavi in her turn makes efforts to take the gesture of a democratic leader. Her”ten point plan”for the future of Iran is a representation of her alleged pro-democratic aspirations but none of the ten points of that secular democratic plan are practiced inside the group’s headquarters Ashraf 3 in Albania as a token community of Iranians.

Members in camp Ashraf 3 are not allowed to ask for their most basic rights. They are not allowed to have any contact with the outside world. They are victims of forced celibacy, forced labor, sleep deprivation in a coercive system that requires them self-criticism and peer pressure. They can never ask about the controversies they are faced with in the cult.

Indeed, the most controversial question in members’ minds might be about the whereabouts of Massoud Rajavi who disappeared in 2003 after the US invasion to Iraq and the eventual collapse of Saddam Hussein, Rajavi’s long-time financial and military sponsor in his struggle against Iran. But, no one dares to ask such a question. Even after the Saudi prince Turki Faisal announced Massoud’s death in the group’s gathering in 2016, the MEK leaders did not approve or deny the announcement.

“However, this absence has been so prolonged that it has led members to criticize and even flee the group.”Suggests Ali Alghurabi of the MNA.”Fear of the group’s collapse has forced Maryam Rajavi to repeatedly move from her Paris headquarters to Tirana to lecture to members in order to show that the situation is under control.”

Alghurabi who is an Arab journalist based in Iran, assumes that the MEK’s stance about the death of Massoud Rajavi is like a game to keep members in limbo.”It seems that measures such as former Saudi intelligence chief Turki al-Faisal’s statements among members of the cult a few years ago in which he had called Masoud Rajavi dead or putting Masoud’s image among Iran’s deceased historical leaders, and, at the same time, denying his death by the cult’s ringleaders by occasionally broadcasting Masoud’s voice messages are the cult’s game to confuse members and even Iranian officials about the status of the group’s leader,”he argues.”The goals of this game are preventing the members’ exit as well as blinding Iranians’ desire to prosecute or exterminate Rajavi.”

ALghurabi correctly asserts that the MEK’s declining system will no more succeed to maintain Massoud Rajavi’s authoritarian soul over members.”It seems that under the current circumstances, whether Massoud is alive or not will have little effect on the group’s situation,”he states.”The MEK continues to be viewed as a notorious group with a bad record among Iranian people and the Iranian opposition groups; A group which had been on the list of terrorist organizations in the US and the EU, with no credible social base in Iran, dozens of its members fled its camps since 2014 when the group was relocated to Albania, the average age of its members on the rise, and many of them already too old. It is even feared that because of its relocation to Albania, the MEK could be considered a serious obstacle to Albania’s EU accession negotiations and the group’s presence in Albania could turn into a challenge for the Balkan country.”

“So whether or not the elderly leader of this cult is alive, when the MEK is facing a lot of challenges, may not matter much,”Alghurabi determines. The collapse of the world’s most powerful dictators like Hitler, Stalin, Saddam and Ghaddafi is the proof. Maryam Rajavi’s hard work to trigger her troll farm in Albania makes no sense when members hardly believe in the group’s cause seeking an opportunity to escape the cult.

Mazda Parsi

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The End of the Path
The cult of Rajavi

The End of the Path documentary- Part1

The documentary “The End of the Path” is a first-hand account of suffering families whose loved ones have been misled by a destructive cult called the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ the Cult of Rajavi). The victims are still taken as hostages by the cult leaders consequently living under a modern slavery.

Download the Video
The three-part documentary was produced while the MEK’s relocation from Iraq to Albania was being accomplished. After the relocation a number of families together with certain former members of the group visited the ruins of Camp Ashraf.
The documentary include these parts: The Ruins of Ashraf, Survivors, and Camp Liberty.
The documentary serves to inform and awaken public opinion on the sufferings of those who are imprisoned inside the destructive mind control cult, the MEK as a group with no popular base in Iran. Today, the group’s treatment against its members is primarily a human rights issue.
In this regard, the mission of Nejat Society is to expose the true nature of the leaders of the cult. We urge all international humanitarian bodies to help us in our efforts to release the victims of the Cult of Rajavi.
By the Media Group of Nejat Society

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Maryam Rajavi
Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

How has the MEK – Rajavi cult – resisted disintegration

The Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK, MKO, NCR, NLA, Rajavi Cult), an armed opposition to the Islamic Republic of Iran, faced dramatic changes after Iraq was invaded by US forces in 2003, and Saddam Hussein, the only state sponsor of the leader Massoud Rajavi, was toppled.
According to the RAND report, the US recognized the cult base Ashraf as a base of the enemy and therefore once the MEK surrendered to the US military, the group was disarmed. But soon instructions from Washington kept the cult intact in their base in Iraq and protection was granted.

Ebrahim Khodabandeh

John Bolton, who served as the US government representative to the UN at the time, was the key lobbyist for the MEK. He was and is a regular paid attendee of Maryam Rajavi’s annual meetings. Several others, like Bolton, also desire to intensify conflict with Iran for the political and economic benefit of an elite rather than in the national interests of the US.
All through the years since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq in 2003, the subsequent Iraqi governments have insisted that the terrorist group – which was considered a threat to national security – be expelled from Iraq.

Paul Pillar

Finally, the US administration entered talks with the Albanian authorities and with the efforts of Hillary Clinton, who was the Secretary of State at the time, the group was moved to Tirana. The aim was to disband the group and reintegrate the individuals back into normal society. At that time this was called a humanitarian act which had no political purpose.
After the new administration took office in Washington and John Bolton became the National Security Adviser and Rudy Giuliani, who has visited Maryam Rajavi several times, became President Trump’s personal advocate, these plans changed and a remote isolated base belonging to the US air force was granted to the terrorist cult to build a new closed camp. The aim was to stop further defections from the group which had become easy after moving from Camp Liberty in Iraq to apartment blocks in Tirana city.
The US promised the Albanian authorities that the MEK presence in their country was temporary and there would be no costs or problems for the Albanian government. This is not the case now of course which is the consequence of new officials taking over the White House.
The policy of the Trump administration has been to exert maximum pressure on Iran to make the government yield to US demands. Supporting a terrorist cult, which claimed at least six US citizens lives in Tehran before the revolution and abandoning the program to disband the cult is part of this policy. A policy which is proving to be totally wrong and which so far has sent all the achievements of the former US administration down the drain.
The MEK leaders prevented the disintegration of the group with the direct help of the US team of hard liners under president Trump. Now the cult is in Albania and represents a security threat to Europe more than anywhere else.
One might ask, did Donald Trump mean to threaten Iran or Europe? The Iraqis managed to rid their country of the terrorist cult. Could Europe in general and Albania in particular manage to do the same?

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Massoud Rajavi
Massoud Rajavi

A cult with a missing leader

All cults in the world are composed of a base and top of the pyramid. The top of the pyramid is the highest position in a cult that finds itself needless to consult and decides on the basis of its own thoughts or desires.

The bodies of these pyramids are forced to follow their hierarchical superiors, which eventually reaches the top of the pyramid.

The terrorist People’s Mojahedin Organization (MEK) is no exception: A leftist political organization that was formed in the 1940s and gradually changed in nature into a true cult.

Massoud Rajavi

The leader of this cult, Masoud Rajavi, has been missing in the past 13 years, just after the US-led war against Iraq in 2003 that toppled Saddam, Rajavi’s friend and ally.

Why has Rajavi disappeared since then, or where is he now, are questions that occasionally come to the minds of those who deal with this cult. There is no doubt that members of this group, especially those living in the MEK’s camp in Tirana, Albania, have repeatedly asked this question from themselves. they can only ask this question from themselves because asking questions in cults, such as the Rajavi’s cult, is a sign of criticism and would immediately be repressed or harshly responded.

But why Rajavi disappeared?

Massoud Rajavi has been the leader of the MEK for more than two and a half decades. He is accused of killing several thousand Iranian citizens and officials over the years by his death squads. In addition, Iraqis believe his group has worked directly with Saddam’s military and security apparatus to suppress the Kurds and Turkmen in the country after the 1991 war with Kuwait. Along with these allegations, which have been admitted by hundreds of the cult’s ex-members, his migration to Iraq during the country’s war with Iran is seen as an unforgivable betrayal by the Iranian people and even by political opponents of the Iranian government.

Thus, with the overthrow of Saddam’s regime and the prosecution of its officials, it was very likely that Massoud Rajavi be prosecuted by Iran or Iraq on charges of murder and war crimes.

In addition, the fear of assassination and physical extermination has obviously scared Rajavi. By his absence, Rajavi appointed his well-dressed wife, Maryam, at the head of the pyramid to indicate that the MEK has changed from a violent armed group to a political movement led by a woman.

In the years following his absence, Massoud Rajavi repeatedly sent audio messages to members of the group in order to prevent the frustration of members out of his prolonged absence.

However, this absence has been so prolonged that it has led members to criticize and even flee the group. Fear of the group’s collapse has forced Maryam Rajavi to repeatedly move from her Paris headquarters to Tirana to lecture to members in order to show that the situation is under control.

It seems that measures such as former Saudi intelligence chief Turki al-Faisal’s statements among members of the cult a few years ago in which he had called Masoud Rajavi dead or putting Masoud’s image among Iran’s deceased historical leaders, and, at the same time, denying his death by the cult’s ringleaders by occasionally broadcasting Masoud’s voice messages are the cult’s game to confuse members and even Iranian officials about the status of the group’s leader. The goals of this game are preventing the members’ exit as well as blinding Iranians’ desire to prosecute or exterminate Rajavi.

It seems that under the current circumstances, whether Massoud is alive or not will have little effect on the group’s situation. The MEK continues to be viewed as a notorious group with a bad record among Iranian people and the Iranian opposition groups; A group which had been on the list of terrorist organizations in the US and the EU, with no credible social base in Iran, dozens of its members fled its camps since 2014 when the group was relocated to Albania, the average age of its members on the rise, and many of them already too old. It is even feared that because of its relocation to Albania, the MEK could be considered a serious obstacle to Albania’s EU accession negotiations and the group’s presence in Albania could turn into a challenge for the Balkan country.

So whether or not the elderly leader of this cult is alive, when the MEK is facing a lot of challenges, may not matter much.

By: Reza Alghurabi

Reza Alghurabi is an Arab journalist who lives in Iran. He is a former researcher at the Beirut Center for Middle East Studies and an independent researcher and journalist writing in Iranian newspapers including the Khorasan daily.

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Rajavi_Giuliani
Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

US-Backed MEK In Albania Akin To Dumping Toxic Waste Without A Decontamination Plan

Under the influence of the Trump administration, Albanians are increasingly angry about the problems that have arisen in their country. Continued crime and corruption at the top levels of the country are not the only problems. In several recent articles, Rama has been criticised for hosting the Mojahedin Khalq on behalf of the Trump administration.
In the Balkans Post, Olsi Jazexhi, a Canadian Albanian historian describes the problem:

“Edi Rama, whose family belonged to communist nomenklatura has reinvented himself as a new autocrat of Albania. For this he has the backing of the Trump administration and top U.S. officials who do not care what goes on in Albania as long as the Rama government hosts the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) and other extremist organizations in the country.”

Reza Alghurabi in The American Herald Tribune says MEK terrorists are complicating Rama’s EU accession talks.

“The presence of the [MEK] … in a base around Tirana could also make Albania’s situation more complicated in its EU accession talks. The MEK was relocated to Albania under U.S. pressure after no other countries took the group in following its expulsion from Iraq.”

Since arriving in Albania from Iraq, the MEK has built a de facto extra-territorial enclave with armed guards which it calls Camp Ashraf III. When Donald Trump became president, plans to de-radicalize the group were halted. Albanian citizens feel MEK crimes are increasingly infecting every aspect of their country, with neither the police nor the security services able to intervene in their camp or their activities. It is akin to having toxic waste dumped on the country but without the means to de-toxify it.
President Rama is unrepentant. In an interview with FaxNews (see translation below), journalist and activist Aulon Kalaja commented that Rama has used hosting the MEK for America as an excuse to remain in power and delay the reforms to the judicial system which are necessary if Albania is to accede to the EU.

Dr Olsi Jazexhi also pointed out that the MEK have corrupted government officials to such an extent that they are perceived as running the country’s foreign policy in relation to Iran. He also says the “verbal and slander attacks that MEK conducts against the free media in Albania, have created a climate of fear in the country”. MEK reportedly pays media outlets to quash news about its nefarious activities being made public.

“MEK has managed to terrorize not only the media but even many Albanian MPs. An Albanian MP who takes part in the meetings that MEK and Maryam Rajavi holds every year in Paris under the banner of Free Iran, told the writer of this article that ‘We know who the MEK are. They are a terrorist organization, whom the Americans killed themselves. But the Americans have told us to protect them, and we are protecting them’.”

The Trump administration loves the MEK solely because the group echoes regime change chants against Iran. The price for this is being paid by Albanians as American protection has allowed the MEK to continue its criminal activities in Albania with impunity. It’s time the citizens of Albania regain control of their country.

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Kalaja: Rama has done America a favour – he is using it to stay in power longer | FaxNews, August 13, 2019:

Invited to FaxNews studio tonight, renowned journalist and activist Aulon Kalaja has commented on recent political movements in the country, ranging from “cracks” within the Socialist Party to Rama’s “abandonment” of the new mayor of Shkodra, Valdrin Peter, Fran Frrokaj’s departure the day before the new mayor of Lezha was sworn in, and even problems in the justice system.

Referring to Rama’s statements to Peter, which came at a time when the Democratic Party published documents showing the arrest, conviction and subsequent expulsion of Peter from Italy, Kalaja says such moves are expected by Rama. According to Kalaja, Rama often dismisses his associates as truths come to light.

“Rama dismisses his associates the moment the truth comes out. This has always happened and everyone who is close to him has this fear.

I judge that Valdrin Peter’s case is not a coincidence but a phenomenon, which you no longer need to betray, despite Peter’s being there with his orders and found there thanks to Rama’s faith.”

Referring to the oaths made by the new mayors in the municipalities, the journalist says that they are illegal because if we consider the way the elections were held, these mayors have gained their positions without competition.

Asked about the dismissal of Lezha’s mayor, Fran Frrokaj, the day before the new mayor was constituted, Kalaja says this is not an emergency but simply something different from the other oaths we are used to seeing so far.

“City Council oaths are made illegally. Neither in form nor in content has June 30 produced a proper mayor. Entering the elections and governing means defeating your opponent in the race. Who beat Edi Rama?

Most of the citizens are under-represented, the figures clearly show. Rama will not hold all 61 Municipalities. It will be impossible. There is nothing remarkable about the Fran Frrokaj case. This was the release of the post by the mayor in a way different from what happened before. But the situation should not stop there. Such a case does not make a difference. “There must be unified action by the opposition”, said the journalist.

Asked about Justice Reform and the Constitutional Court, Kalaja says Rama is exploiting the Mojahedin, who, in his view, are Trump’s ‘weakness’ to drag out Justice reform.

As for the Constitutional Court, the journalist said that because this court is the most important institution in the country, politics should stay away from it. According to Kalaja, even in the event of political rotation, this court must be invalid.

“Rama has given the keys to Justice reform to the Americans, but he is using a contribution he has made to America. He is exploiting Albania’s hosting of the Iranian opposition, which for Trump is an extremely important issue.

“Rama is holding on to the American state because of the Mojahedin. This is a very sensitive issue for them. That is why it gives Rama the space to drag out Justice reform, only by using the Mojahedin.

“This is absurd… The Constitutional Court is sacred and is set in motion by 1/4 of the deputies, the individual or the ombudsman; this itself shows the strength of this court. It must be invulnerable. I don’t know what will happen with the change of power, but I think the right thing would be for the government not to intervene in the judiciary at all.”

Speaking, among other things, about the artists’ protest, the reporter reiterated that the idea of demolishing the building is to devour public funds.

He has called for all art lovers to contribute some money so artists can restore the theater themselves.

“There is no ammonia there or a toilet,” says Mr Veliaj. Those who are lovers of art, let them set up another theater elsewhere but not touch the existing one. But this is not about theater but about swallowing up funds.

However, artists will strive to rebuild this theater with the proceeds from art lovers and international donors. So, when you leave the theater, you contribute”, Journalist Aulon Kalaja concluded his interview.

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