Mujahedin Khalq Declining

What do Iranians think of the MEK?

Reporters who talk about the MEK usually want to talk about the politics and the money. They say, for example, that John Bolton supports them, that they get money from Saudi Arabia, that they want regime change in Iran. Sometimes these reporters even mention Iranians. When they do, they say the MEK doesn’t have much support in Iran because of siding with Saddam Hussein in the war that ended in 1988. That’s all.
Maybe they don’t say anything else because they don’t know anything else. Maybe they don’t care what Iranians think of the MEK because they are too busy talking about what America wants and what Europe wants from Iran.
Iranians have a lot to say about the MEK. Not just inside Iran. Not just ex-members. The Iranian opposition outside Iran has its own view of the MEK.
Let’s hear more from Iranians about the MEK.
Ali Alavi,

March 16, 2019 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Female defectors of the MKO in the EU Parliament on March 8th

Female defectors of the Mujahedin Khalq Organizaion (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI) participated an inter-parliamentary committee meeting organized by Parliament’s gender equality committee.

IRan Zanan participated at the international women's day conference at Eu Parliament

The conference that was held a day ahead of the International Women’s Day was focus on young women in politics as well as women’s real power in politics and how to boost it.
Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Committee members debated with more than 20 national MPs from 15 EU member states and Norway during an inter-parliamentary meeting on ‘‘Women’s power in politics’’.
Opening the event chaired by Vilija Blinkevičiūtė (S&D, LT), EP President Antonio Tajani declared: ‘‘We must keep working to have more women in politics, but also in businesses. It is a battle for dignity and respect that must be fought by all of us.’’
EP Vice-President and Chair of the High-level group on Gender Equality Dimitrios Papadimoulis added that even though women’s participation in politics was on the rise, ‘‘most of the important positions are still filled by men, and this has to change. If we continue according to the rhythms we are following now, we will achieve gender equality in 182 years!’’
The first-ever female President of Croatia, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, delivered a keynote speech in which she recalled how she had to fight for her place, both in life and in politics, and to break countless glass ceilings. “The starting point is a change in mind-set: we need to build a political culture which leads to women’s equal participation’’. In conclusion, her message to women and girl was: ‘‘Have faith and believe in yourselves, in your values, your strength and your capabilities. Your determination will make all remaining obstacles fall.’’

Among the other participants, Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality Commissioner Věra Jourová, EU foreign policy Chief Federica Mogherini and Women’s Rights Committee Vice-Chair João Pimenta Lopes advocated for more women in decision-making, pleaded for men to be involved in the fight for gender equality and for existing legislation on the subject to be properly enforced.
Batoul Soltani, Homeira Mohammadi and Zahra Moini of Women Association and Reza Jebeli of Aawa Association attended the meeting to denounce violent attitudes of the MKO leaders against their rank and files. Batoul Soltani condemned the MKO authorities for they separated her six-month old and two-year old children from her and smuggled them to Europe in 1991. She stated that the MKO has violated the rights of hers and her children’s.
Homeira Mohammad nezhad was a teenager when she joined the MKO. She addressed the conference on the psychological pressure she endured inside the MKO. As a fourteen year-old girl she was not allowed to contact her parents during the years she was a member of the group.
Zahra Moini gave testimony on forced divorce, forced celibacy, brainwashing sessions and violation of the most basic human rights in the MKO camps.
Reza Jebeli also talked to a number of representatives warning about the potential violence of the MKO and the destructives role of the group’s lobbies to obstruct the future EU elections.
In the margins of the conference, the defectors tried to enlighten EU parliament representatives offering them documented testimonies on the cult-like nature of the MKO. They called on the EU Parliament to recognize the rights of defectors of the MKO as refugees submitting their letters of requests for medical care and living facilities.
The human rights violations committed by the MKO was condemned by the representatives.

March 13, 2019 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Codepink Raps US Senators’ Support for Mojahedin Khalq

The co-founder of Pinkcode, an anti-war NGO based in the US, blasted members of the Congress for supporting the anti-Iran Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as the MEK, PMOI and NCRI) terrorist group.

Medea Benjamin

Speaking at a press conference at FNA College of Journalism in Tehran on Tuesday, Medea Benjamin, the co-founder of Codepink: Women for Peace, voiced concern about the relationship between the US congresspersons and the terrorist groups like the MKO.
She underlined that the American people are tired of new wars and conflicts as well as the propaganda launched by the US media and officials against Iran, adding that they are more suspicious of Saudi Arabia’s activities, specially in Yemen, and after the brutal killing of prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“The American people are also tired of the US government’s unconditional support for Israel,” Benjamin said.
Asked by journalists if they will be troubled when returning from Iran to the US, she said, “We do not know if we will have problem. But when we go back, some of us may undergo questioning.”
Benjamin noted the hospitality of the Iranian people during the visit to Tehran and other Iranian cities and voiced concern over Washington’s inhumane sanctions on Iranian citizens.
The delegation said they have traveled to Tehran to stress the difference in the stances between the American government and people, reiterating that the American people are against their country’s sanctions on Iran.
Banjamin said that the travel ban against the Iranians, the US unilateral sanctions against Iran and the difficulties created for the Iranian people in their access to medicine and different technological goods by the embargoes have upset the Codepink members and many American people.
She said that after returning to the US, the anti-war group will push the US congresspersons and presidential candidates to make efforts to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, adding that the American people want to leave in peace with the world community.
On February 24, Code Pink activists met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and students at University of Tehran.
After the meeting, Benjamin criticized Donald Trump for “ramping up confrontation with Iran”.
Also last Wednesday, the US anti-war activists participated in a press conference at Tehran’s Milad Tower where they criticized the US administration for abandoning the multilateral 2015 nuclear deal and re-imposing bans on Iran, saying such a move is the outcome of extensive lobbying by the Israeli and Saudi regimes, America’s staunchest allies in the Middle-East.
Trump unilaterally pulled the US out of the nuclear accord, officially named the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and unleashed the “toughest ever” sanctions against Iran.
Since then, the US has been trying to coerce the Europeans into following its lead and withdrawing from the nuclear accord with Iran.
The MKO, founded in the 1960s, blended elements of Islamism and Stalinism and participated in the overthrow of the US-backed Shah of Iran in 1979. Ahead of the revolution, the MKO conducted attacks and assassinations against both Iranian and western targets.
The group started assassination of the citizens and officials after the revolution in a bid to take control of the newly-established Islamic Republic. It killed several of Iran’s new leaders in the early years after the revolution, including the then President, Mohammad Ali Rajayee, Prime Minister, Mohammad Javad Bahonar and the Judiciary Chief, Mohammad Hossein Beheshti who were killed in bomb attacks by the MKO members in 1981.
The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it was protected by Saddam Hussein and where it helped the Iraqi dictator suppress Shiite and Kurd uprisings in the country.
The terrorist group joined Saddam’s army during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988) and helped Saddam and killed thousands of Iranian civilians and soldiers during the US-backed Iraqi imposed war on Iran.
Since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group, which now adheres to a pro-free-market philosophy, has been strongly backed by neo-conservatives in the United States, who argued for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.
The US formally removed the MKO from its list of terror organizations in September 2012, one week after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent the US Congress a classified communication about the move. The decision made by Clinton enabled the group to have its assets under the US jurisdiction unfrozen and do business with the American entities, the State Department said in a statement at the time.
In September 2012, the last groups of the MKO terrorists left Camp Ashraf, their main training center in Iraq’s Diyala province. They have been transferred to Camp Liberty. Hundreds of the MKO terrorists have now been sent to Europe, where their names were taken off the blacklist even two years before the US.
The MKO has assassinated over 12,000 Iranians in the last 4 decades. The terrorist group had even killed large numbers of Americans and Europeans in several terror attacks before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Some 17,000 Iranians have lost their lives in terror attacks in the 35 years after the Revolution.
Rumors were confirmed in September 2016 about the death of MKO ringleader, Massoud Rajavi, as a former top Saudi intelligence official disclosed in a gaffe during an address to his followers.
Rajavi’s death was revealed after Turki al-Faisal who was attending the MKO annual gathering in Paris made a gaffe and spoke of the terrorist group’s ringleader as the “late Rajavi” twice.
Faced with Faisal’s surprising gaffe, Rajavi’s wife, Maryam, changed her happy face with a complaining gesture and cued the interpreter to be watchful of translation words and exclude the gaffe from the Persian translation.
Documents had shown last year that US National Security Adviser John Bolton received $40,000 to participate and address the audience in a gathering of the MKO terrorist group in Paris in July 2017.

March 11, 2019 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq as an Opposition Group

Iran’s Intelligence Body rolls out documentary on infiltrating France-based anti-Iran media

TEHRAN – Television Channel 2 of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Broadcasting (IRIB) aired a documentary film on an anti-Iran figure famous for his self-proclaimed leaked information against the country, revealing how the country’s intelligence forces had extensive surveillance over him and played him for a long span of time.

Nima Zam

Amad News, a website and a Telegram-based news outlet with over one million subscribers, was a glimmer of hope for anti-Iran groups and their financial supporters who are mostly based in Western countries, with its self-proclaimed leaked pieces of information allegedly disclosing “much less known realities” about Iran.
After the Telegram channel of Amad News invited people to use violence and instructed how to assemble Molotov cocktails in last year unrests in a number of Iranian cities, the channel was closed by the social networking platform and the owners of the outlet opened a new one with the new name of Sedaei Mardom. Iran filed a complaint to shut down the new channel on charges of provoking violence, but Telegram’s Russian owner defied the request.
The anti-Iran mouthpiece was founded in 2015 mainly by Ruhollah Zam, the son of an Iranian official of 1990s.
In the documentary made by an Iranian intelligence service and aired by the IRIB’s Channel 2, an insider who had been cooperating with Zam is first identified and detained by the intelligence forces and the collaborator, self-called Alireza and sometimes Hajj Ali, continues his relationship with the head of Amad News.
Alireza had been in touch with Zam, who is known to his audience as Nima, for a long time from his room in Tehran through Whatsapp, and he was found and arrested through monitoring all of Zam’s contacts with his links through the application. Intelligence forces discovered that Alireza happens to be among the most important people in Iran that Zam is in touch with via Whatsapp.
A room in an intelligence organization of Iran is specified to the operation with changes in the decoration so that Nima would feel nothing suspicious. Alireza is still keeping in touch with Zam on a regular basis but this time under round-the-clock surveillance by cameras and microphones of the intelligence forces.
The operation is managed and commanded with a team of scenario writers of the intelligence body who are directing Alireza through this new chapter of his relations with Nima.
The intelligence experts conduct a series of gimmicks to find out more about the depth of Nima’s character and the nuances of his personality.
At first they find out that Nima is thirsty for more attention with more surprising news. They concoct new stories to feed the attention-beggar with fake stuff to see how he would deal with weird stories.
Much to their surprise, the sky is the limit for him and Nima’s obsession with astounding others has blinded him with stupidity. The con man likes fake news and the more fictional, the merrier.
In the film, you can see all the video dialogues of Alireza and Nima via Whatsapp recorded; in one of the scenes, Alireza is dictating a piece of fake news about travel ban to Iran’s central deserts, and Amad News chief hesitates not for even a single moment to release the news immediately on November 22.
During the dialogue, Nima asks Alireza if it is OK to publish the news also on the Asharq Al-Awsat, which shows the close ties between the anti-Iran figure and Saudi-funded media.
However, it is not the first time that the links between anti-Iran elements and Saudi funds is disclosed and, earlier, there were reports about financial supports for the Amad News by entities linked to Saudi Arabia, Israeli intelligence service Mossad, and Turkey.
Seven days later, Nima is fed with another fake news which he again publishes on his outlet, supposing that he has insiders with access to highly classified documents.
This time, Nima surprises his audience with the news that Telegram will be replaced by Elegram by a British national Vasily Dorsiev, a name that you will find no bearer for it online, with zero results in Google. Nima even believes such a big lie, and reassures his followers that he has access to very high secretive information which no one else can verify but he himself.
Little by little, the intelligence experts are more reassured with the fact that Nima is suffering from a malign level of delusions of grandeur.
At a time in the film you can see that Alireza has won Nima’s trust and Zam discloses more of his inner feelings to him.
Once Zam tells Alireza that a Jewish astrologist has told a friend of him that Nima will surely become an important person by the future 22 months. He then calls himself as a sun-like god who is shining and kills those who approach him too much.
Gradually, Zam spins more stuff around this illusion and asks other friends to enquire his fortune from more palm readers and horoscopists.
Music to his ear, Nima hears more of this sort of flattery and is offered more mesmerizing soft soap by friends and manipulators.
With his mind-blowing pieces of news, now Zam has accumulated a high level of reputation for himself among the anti-Iran figures linked to Western intelligence services.
Accordingly, the intelligence commanders and experts involved in the operation decide to find out more about other anti-Iran figures in touch with Zam who are mainly residing in France and the US. They decide to use the newly won fame of Nima, as bait to attract other anti-Iran people.
Alireza asks Nima to establish closer relations with former Iranian president Abolhassen Banisadr who was impeached by the Iranian legislature in June 1981 and fled to Paris the following month.

Banisadr tells Zam that the Islamic Republic of Iran is too strong to be challenged by US’ regime change campaign
Nima calls Banisadr’s office and an appointment is arranged. French security forces escort him to the venue and while he is in a bullet-proof vehicle, he tells Alireza through a video call that bodyguards with machine guns are accompanying him. With his cellphone, he films one of the machine guns and says, “The French intelligence service is perfect.”
After meeting Baniasdr, Nima tells Alireza that guards protecting Baniasdr’s place were shocked with the bodyguards in his company who all carried machine guns, and did not let Nima and his protectors to enter in till a call from superior French security ranks issues the permit. He adds that even Banisadr has lost his hope for regime change in Iran.
He adds that Banisadr has reassured him that the US will never attack Iran and Reza Pahlavi is a minor player with no significance.
Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s last dictator who left the country along with his father in 1979, is another anti-Iran person Nima is asked to get in touch.

Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s former dictator, is described by Zam as an incompetent person under tight control of his mum, the widow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Nima downplays Reza Pahlavi, saying that Pahlavi is under total control of his mother, the widow of the toppled king of Iran, and is regarded as an unimportant pawn in this game.
“Reza Pahlavi is no good even for occupying the post of a governor in a village,”Nima (Zam) says, despising the son of the deposed king.
“I have information from his close buddies, and I know that he even walks at home at nights imagining himself as reviewing Iran’s army,” Nima says, quoting a link named as Yasser.
Nima says that the heir to Iran’s toppled throne has repetitively sent him messages through mediators to ask for help.
In another scene, Pahlavi and Zam are exchanging messages, and Nima asks Pahlavi what his rank and position will be in the post-coup government of the dreaming prince, hoping that the US will help for staging a coup in Iran.
Amir Abbas Fakhravar is another anti-Iran figure Nima talks about in his video calls with Alireza.

Zam: “Nobody likes to sit beside Fakhravar (the right in the photo). He is the most abhorred…”
He says that Fakhravar is the most hated anti-Iran person among the US-backed fellows, adding that he is paid $300,000 per annum for anti-Iran operation.
Zam recounts that a Jewish American is funding Fakhravar, adding that he squanders the whole sum of money with luxurious travels to Washington and other cities with no accomplishment.
Zam brags about his contacts with all anti-Iran figures, and to prove his close ties to Alireza, Nima calls Ardashir Amir Arjmand – the top advisor of Mir-Hossein Moussavi the leader of the 2009 post-election unrests in Iran who is now under house arrest – telling him that he is in Paris and he wants to meet Amir Arjmand.

Amir Arjmand had a destructive role in post-election unrests of 2009 in Iran. Thanks to his brother’s high rank in the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as MEK, NCRI or PMOI), Amir Arjmand escaped to Iraqi Kurdistan and there he met with French security agents who took him to Paris.

About the status of MKO terrorist group among US-sponsored anti-Iran groups, Zam tells Alireza that Americans have an instrumental approach to the MKO. Nima says that if Americans manage to stage a coup in Iran, they would use MKO for a short period of reign of terror. “They will be tasked with carrying out a flash massacre to kill a few millions in the first phase, and then they will be eliminated,” he adds.

Touching upon Masih Alinejad, Nima says that she is a sentimental and minor role player of no significance.
About his own source of finance, Zam says he and his family were given a bank account upon their arrivcal in France, adding that he is paid 12,000 euros a month through the bank account of his daughter Mahsa by French authorities.
In their long video talks, Alireza asks for Zam’s opinion about other anti-Iran fellows like Noureddin Pirmoazzen, Fatemeh Haqiqatjou, Mohsen Sazgara, Farah Diba, Masih Alinejad, Davoud Kashi, and in most cases, Nima uses pejorative language to describe his fellows as foolhearted idiots, saying that all are his puppets looking up to him.
In another scene, Fakhravar, in a telephone call, tells him that he is looking forward to hearing the latest announcement of the Amad news.
Zam also talks about the network of Western-sponsored media run or presented by Mohammad Hosseini, Bijan Farhoudi, Hassan Shariatmadari, Ali Javanmardi, Hassan Etemadi, and Manouchehr Mohammadi, all the figures who claim to be the noteworthy and at times leader of the opposition of the Islamic Republic.
He boasts in most of the dialogues that all of the media people of anti-Iran networks are lower than him, manipulated by his news.
Early in December, Iranian intelligence experts make up another fake news, concocting that a top secret operation will kick off in Tel Aviv to revive a new monarchy in Tehran with the new king named as Cyrus the Second.
Following that, Nima released the news about operation Cyrus the Second on December 09 with keywords like “Tehran’s Conquest” and the “Big Operation of Restoring Cyrus the Great”. The piece jolts the disintegrated opposition front like a powerful quake with many claiming to be the next king!!!
With the latest fake news on line, all the opposition of the Islamic Republic from Mohammad Hosseini, a TV host who has been nicknamed as the clown of opposition, to Farah Diba the widow of the deposed King Pahlavi and her son Reza Pahlavi start new programs to say that they are part of the operation, informed of it, and even claiming to be the Cyrus the Second.
Pressured to realize US National Security Adviser John Bolton’s dream of preventing Iran from seeing the 40th anniversary of the victory of the Islamic Revolution, Zam was awarded funds to join a big anti-Iran campaign, codenamed as the Hard Winter.
Zam knows himself as the spiritual father of riots in Iran and the leader of the last year’s sporadic protests. He thinks that he can stage a second winter of protests.
In the operation Hard Winter, all anti-Iran people are formed in three ties and all the people involved are promised to be disclosed to the public in future episodes of this documentary by Iranian security bodies. The first tie is called the Council of Media Coordination with ten members.
The tie is comprised of the media people tasked with stirring discontent and unhappiness among the masses of people in Iran.
Ali Javanmardi, a reporter the Voice of America (VOA), is commissioned with stirring disruptions in Iran’s foreign currencies exchange markets through fake news to stir anxiety among the Iranian public. He runs a Telegram channel with objectives to sabotage Iran’s economy, and is stationed in one of Iran’s neighboring counties.
Americans were hopeful to hold the Warsaw conference concurrent with the promised operations of people like Zam inside Iran.
But much to their dismay, all these efforts fruited nothing and the Western funders of the operation got angry.
Following the massive turnout of Iranians in the public rallies of February 11 to mark the 40th anniversary of the victory of the Islamic Revolution, Zam tells Alireza that he is very disappointed and he will turn into husbandry to change his job.
Revealing more of his inner feelings, in another dialogue with Alireza, Nima says that the Islamic Republic of Iran is formidably strengthened.
Angry and disappointed, he says that he was very dispirited how he was treated after he softly criticized Reza Pahlavi. “I found out that these people would hang all our mothers and fathers if they could claim the throne in Tehran.”
Shocked with Iran’s intelligence superiority in dealing with Western-backed groups, Maziar, the technician in charge of supporting anti-Iran media, tells Nima and Alireza that Iran has managed to gain access to all data transactions through Whatsapp and Instagram social media platforms saying that the Iranian security bodies have eventually broken the key codes of these two social media networks.
Disheartened and much concerned, Zam says that all their connection channels are leaked with holes and Iran is exercising surveillance over them.
The Iranian TV has already aired two episodes of the documentary and promised more in coming days.

March 10, 2019 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq as an Opposition Group

Are the MEK and Regime Change Finally Running Out of Road?

The “regime change in Iran” bandwagon—driven by warmongers, fueled by false prophesy, and hurtling pell-mell down the road to Iran—contains various characters, some new and some old.
The bandwagon itself is an ideological construct created 40 years ago in response to the Iranian Revolution. It has taken on various incarnations over the years, but its central purpose has always been to destroy the Islamic Republic of Iran and replace it with a compliant pro-American government. What that is hardly matters of course, as was the case with Iraq in 2003.
The drivers of this bandwagon are paid large sums to pursue this agenda at any cost. Others are mere passengers, hoping for a role after the vehicle reaches the destination. Among these passengers is the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), formerly a terrorist group and currently “democratic opposition.” The MEK has been a passenger for all 40 years of the journey, hanging on by paying the drivers. These drivers are public persons such as National Security Advisor John Bolton and Trump lawyer Rudi Giuliani, along with a host of other “influential” persons who steer the bandwagon inexorably toward conflict.
But just as the bandwagon appears to be gathering speed and momentum—enough to scare the Trump administration’s opponents—the MEK appears to be running out of road. And that could signal a halt to the whole enterprise.
The first sign of this came in a piece by Eli Clifton, which discussed the provenance of a large payment ($165,000) received by John Bolton in relation to a tweet to “defend a non-governmental anti-Iran pressure group, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI)…”. Clifton’s own tweet was met by a couple of feeble MEK slave troll posts on his thread spouting the usual “no appeasement” and “terrorist Iran” themes. This indicates that the MEK has been outbid by a new bandwagon passenger UANI, since the MEK only managed $40,000 for one of Bolton’s speeches. Also, the MEK trolls are running out of steam back in their closed camp in Albania.
Even while Bolton and the Trump administration, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are pushing for a war with Iran, they are beginning to realize that the MEK is not the stick needed to strike fear into the enemy. Indeed, a look at the recent behaviour of the MEK in Albania reveals a failing group beset by internal crisis.
After a series of critical investigative articles by reporters from Al Jazeera, The Guardian, The Independent, Channel 4 News, NBC, and others, the recent report in Der Spiegel by Luisa Hommerich was apparently the last straw. The MEK issued a Farsi language statement (written and published in Europe) threatening to assassinate her—for just doing her job.
Hommerich reported that inside the camp in Albania, MEK militants were still practicing the deadly techniques for combat taught them by Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard—“cutting throats with a knife,” “breaking hands,” “removing eyes with fingers,” and “tearing the mouth open.” In 2017, the Trump administration reversed a 2013 plan by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to establish a De-Radicalisation Institute to disband and rehabilitate the MEK, allowing the dangerous cult to regroup behind closed doors in a de facto extra-territorial enclave and continue its violent practices.

In spite of this boost, the MEK, beset by exposures and defections, is trying to prevent the total collapse of the group. Around a thousand members have left the group since it relocated to Albania. The front line over which the MEK peers at its enemy, the Islamic Republic, is no longer Iraq but is now represented by a group of 40 former members protesting in Tirana. The MEK claim that these are all “agents of the Iranian regime” who want to kill the remaining cult members. So, instead of orchestrating regime change in Iran, the MEK can’t even deal with 40 destitute former members.
The MEK is engaged in a form of modern slavery by not paying thousands of activists for 30 years or more. Members who leave the group are left destitute because they have nothing but the clothes on their back even after decades of loyal service. The MEK claims that members offer their services as “volunteers.” But the preamble to the UN Declaration of Human Rights states in its opening sentence that human rights are inalienable—that is, they cannot be disowned by anyone for any reason. MEK leader Maryam Rajavi is responsible for such decisions and treatment.
Not only are the defectors that Hommerich profiles impoverished because they have not had financial recompense for their years of devotion, they are also deliberately left stateless. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees brought the MEK to Albania from Iraq on “humanitarian grounds.” But on arrival they were not granted UN refugee status, nor have they been issued Albanian identity documents that would allow them to work or travel. Lack of residency rights also means that they cannot register for a bank account. They have no identity papers whatsoever, except the flimsy piece of paper used to fly them through international airspace from Baghdad to Tirana.
In her pursuit of fame and glory, Maryam Rajavi treats her members as, essentially, cannon fodder. In the idealized future she paints for the members, they will one day march on Tehran, the vanguard of a spontaneous uprising of the Iranian people against their Islamic oppressors, the mullahs. Why would they need money or identity papers?
In the meantime, it suits Rajavi to have her “followers” incarcerated in a closed camp unable to live independent lives, subject to the whims and demands of the struggle that she purports to lead. But that struggle has almost evaporated. Sure, the MEK is still performing propaganda tasks for various Saudis, Israelis, and Americans to advance the anti-Iran push. But even that is becoming more and more irrelevant as the MEK itself begins to fail.
Massoud Khodabandeh is the director of Middle East Strategy Consultants and has worked long-term with the authorities in Iraq to bring about a peaceful solution to the impasse at Camp Liberty and help rescue other victims of the Mojahedin-e Khalq cult. Among other publications, he co-authored the book “The Life of Camp Ashraf: Victims of Many Masters” with his wife Anne Singleton. They also published an academic paper on the MEK’s use of the Internet. Anne Khodabandeh is a UK expert in anti-terrorist activities and a long-standing activist in the field of deradicalization of extremists. She has written several articles and books on this subject, along with her husband, who is of Iranian origin.

by Anne and Massoud Khodabandeh

March 9, 2019 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq as an Opposition Group

MEK, an expired opposition?

Founded in the early 1960s, the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ the Cult of Rajavi) was the first opposition group to fight against the Shah of Iran. Today, more than half a century after the foundation of the group it is not considered an opposition group anymore. However, it is mostly regarded as a cult-like establishment that opposes the Islamic Republic and is used as a tool to pressure the Iranian government.

In other words, as Mohammad Sahimi asserts, the MEK should be called a “fake opposition”. Muhammad Sahimi, a professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, has been analyzing Iran’s political developments and its nuclear program for 25 years. He labels the entire Iranian opposition groups as “true” and “fake”. He correctly clarifies that a fake opposition is the one that does not enjoy the support of the Iranian public opinion and does supports any position against its nation including sanctions, military attack and so on.

“Two main groups have emerged among the opposition to Iran’s hardliners, both within Iran and in the diaspora,” Sahimi suggests. “One group, the true opposition that includes the reformists, religious-nationalists, secular leftists, various labor groups, human rights activists, and others, believes that it is up to the Iranian people living in Iran how to change the political system in their country. This group is opposed to foreign intervention, particularly by the United States and its allies, the illegal economic sanctions imposed by the United States on Iran, and the constant threats of military confrontation espoused by John Bolton, President Trump’s national security advisor, and other Iran hawks.” [1]

He puts the MEK in the list of the second group: fake oppositions. “Many Iranians refer to the second group as the “fake” opposition,” he writes. “It consists mostly of the monarchists, some ethnic groups, and the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), the exiled group that is universally despised in Iran and was on the State Department’s list of “Foreign Terrorist Organizations” from 1997 until 2011. It is called the “fake” opposition because it supports the economic sanctions and the threat of military attacks, and has completely aligned itself not only with the Trump administration, but also with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Israel, and endorses their propaganda against Iran. This group, whose followers are based mostly in the diaspora, acts more like a lobby for convincing the Iranian people to support the Trump-Mohammed bin Salman(MbS)-Benjamin Netanyahu triangle in their confrontation with Iran, rather than as a group supporting the true opposition within Iran for lasting, irreversible, and positive changes in the political system.” [2]

Ann Khodabandeh, former member of the MEK confirms that the group is never a normal opposition, not only because of its anti-national stances but also because of its potential threat as a terrorist entity. Referring to several cases of assassination and death attempts committed by the MEK, she proves that the group is a cult that is engaged in violence and is never responsive to journalists and critics despite all its efforts to take the gesture of a democratic alternative for the Iranian government. “It is a mistake to approach the MEK as a normal opposition,” she writes. [3]

Nonetheless, every now and then we see the American high profiles like John Bolton, Trump’s national security advisor who shout their ardent support for the MEK as their desired Iranian future government. Are they really such naïve to ignore the MEK’s fake face?

Ebrahim Khodabandeh, former member of the MEK and the general director of Nejat Society believes that current leader of the MEK Maryam Rajavi has also an expiration date just like her predecessor Massoud. “The MEK under Maryam Rajavi’s leadership has not met any of her new sponsors’ needs and requirements,” Khodabandeh asserts. “It is time, therefore, for a new face if the MEK is going to be of any value against the Islamic Republic of Iran. We are waiting for her disappearance after that of her husband.” [4]

Mazda Parsi

Sources:

[1] Sahimi, Mohammad, Pompeo, Bolton, and Iran’s “Fake Opposition”, Lobelog, February 6^th, 2019.

[2] ibid

[3] Khodabandeh, Ann, It’s a mistake to treat the MEK as a normal opposition group, Iran Interlink, February 27th, 2019.

[4] Khodabandeh, Ebrahim, When would Maryam Rajavi disappear?, Iran Interlink , Feb 28, 2019

March 6, 2019 0 comments

Maryam Rajavi

When would Maryam Rajavi disappear?

Massoud Rajavi was the sole leader of the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK, MKO, NCR) terrorist cult for two decades. He disappeared just before the fall of Saddam Hussein in Iraq in March 2003. Since then no-one knows his whereabouts; his wife Maryam now leads the organization.

In the last sixteen years, a lot has been said and written about the reason for his disappearance and why he does not show his face even to his own followers. There were even rumours about his death that the MEK did not express any clear and firm reaction to, leading to even more speculation.

The undeniable fact is that the MEK has a dark history of terror, crimes and betrayals and therefore is hated by all Iranians, even those opposing the Islamic Republic. Massoud Rajavi, who had lost his popularity inside Iran, gambled his destiny and tied it up with that of Saddam Hussein who was a loser in the end.

After the fall of the Baghdad dictator – the cult’s sole state sponsor – the MEK tried to find an alternative for him, this time in the west. But the US and its regional allies were only happy to use the MEK without Massoud Rajavi. They wanted to bypass the cult leader and leave the cult’s unpopularity behind with him.

However, the MEK’s top officials knew that the cult would not remain intact without the charismatic leadership of Massoud Rajavi, and this left the organization in a deadly paradox. The new sponsors such as the Saudis wanted Massoud Rajavi out of the picture, yet the MEK could not survive without him.

Two years ago, former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki bin Faisal announced the death of Massoud Rajavi. At the same time Maryam Rajavi keeps talking as though he is leading the organization even though there is no trace of him.

But the MEK under Maryam Rajavi’s leadership has not met any of her new sponsors’ needs and requirements. It is time, therefore, for a new face if the MEK is going to be of any value against the Islamic Republic of Iran. We are waiting for her disappearance after that of her husband.

February 28, 2019 0 comments

Maryam Rajavi

What are the achievements of Maryam Rajavi in 40 years of fighting the IRI?

Despite the huge propaganda the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ the Cult of Rajavi) launched for the Warsaw Summit, the US-led conference was a failure. The MKO leaders who apparently are too optimistic about Trump’s anti Iran policy, made their utmost efforts to exploit the shambolic conference in Warsaw. Alex Ward of VOX accurately asserts that the meeting “was intended to isolate Iran has ended up isolating America instead — highlighting one of the central problems of President Donald Trump’s foreign policy”. [1]
Ward’s assertion was confirmed by several other journalists and experts. Ron Ben YIshai of the YNetNews writes,

“The Warsaw Summit was a mostly failed attempt by the United States to form a broad international coalition to support the Trump administration’s Middle East policies.” [2]

“U.S. officials have been trying to portray the Warsaw Conference as a success for their plans; the concrete results are far from that,” And Saeb Erekat of Haaretz states.

“Just as with other aspects of foreign policy under the Trump administration, its emissaries have exaggerated its results.” [3]

It seems that the dreams of the MKO leaders have shattered by the end of the Warsaw Summit even though they spent a lot of money to nurture their cause in the sidelines of the program. As usual the group rented speaker and participants in front of the conference hall. At the time, Gregg Carlstrom of the Economist wrote on his twitter account,

“The MEK is having a rally in Warsaw where as usual about a third of the crowd is random non-Iranians who’ve been bussed in from Slovakia and can’t read the signs they’re holding”. [4]

Former New York mayor, Giuliani spoke at the MKO’s show to suggest that “peace in the region would only come when Iran was ruled instead by his clients, the National Council of Resistance of Iran”. [5]
It is widely known that Giuliani’s motivation to support a formerly designated terrorist group which has the blood of Americans in its hand, is just financial. “If the MEK were holding an event on the South Pole, Rudy Giuliani would participate,”Ambassador Daniel Benjamin, Director of the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College and former Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the State Department, told Newsweek.

“He seems wholly addicted to the group’s honorarium checks, and he refuses to let it bother him that the MEK has American blood on its hands. He is the picture of a man without principle.”[6]

The scandals of the MKO reached their peak when Des Spiegel exposed more revelations about the true nature of the group a few days after the Poland Summit. In order to prepare the report, Luisa Hommerich interviewed a dozen of the MKO defectors in Albania. “Members of the Trump administration have been providing support to a political sect that aims to topple the Iranian regime in Tehran,” she writes.

“Around 2,000 of its members live in a camp in Albania. Former members say it is subjecting followers to torture and psychological terror.” [7]

The report exposes horrific violation of human rights inside the MKO and eventually the author is accused of being the agent of the IR intelligence by the MKO’s political arm, the so-called National Council of Resistance. The main question that should be answered by the MKO leaders is that given that all the evidences and testimonies on the human rights abuses by the MKO are misinformation forged by the Iranian government, what are the group’s achievements in the past forty years?
As soon as Saddam Hussein’s regime was collapsed in 2003, the MKO was disarmed by the US army. As a result it created a big gap in the then isolated structure of the group. A large number of Ashraf residents defected the group. The process of defection has been going on until now that the group is settling in Albania. This is happening despite the severe control and manipulation by the MKO to prevent defection.
Exploring the history of the MKO in the forty years of its existence after the 1979 revolution in Iran, you are not able to find a step forward to the group’s claimed cause which is the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. The only improvement that the group has made during the recent past decades can be seen in the number of its paid supporters. This is in an absolute contrast with the loss in the number of the group’s loyal fighters.

By Mazda Parsi
[1] Ward, Alex, The US held a global summit to isolate Iran. America isolated itself instead, VOX, February 15th, 2019.
[2] Yishai, Ron Ben, Warsaw Summit winners and losers, YNetNews, February 17th, 2019.
[3] Erekat, Saeb, The Arab World Just Trashed Trump’s Mideast ‘Peace’ Plan, Haaretz, February 18th, 2019.
[4] Mackey, Robert, As Giuliani Calls for Regime Change in Iran, Netanyahu Raises the Specter of “War”, The Intercept, February 14th, 2019.
[5] ibid
[6] Maza, Cristina, Trump Lawyer Rudy Giuliani Gives Rally Calling for Iran Regime Change Right Outside Warsaw Middle East Summit Featuring Jared Kushner, Mike Pence, NewsWeek, February 13th, 2019.
[7] Hommerich, Luisa, Prisoners of Their Own Rebellion.The Cult-Like Group Fighting Iran, Spiegel Online, February 18th, 2019.

February 23, 2019 0 comments

Iran

No; Islamic Republic Not Months Away from Collapse

Iran celebrated the 40th anniversary of its revolution on Monday, with people marching to honour an unexpected victory that birthed the Islamic Republic.

Packed crowds of Iranians were on the streets in Iranian cities to commemorate the sweeping away of the US-backed rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, defying a prediction that few in Iran are in celebration mood considering rising unemployment and inflation exacerbated by US sanctions.
But this was not the only prediction proven false. The celebrations left unfulfilled the latest prophecy of the hawkish US national security advisor John Bolton, who hoped last year “the Ayatollah Khomeini’s 1979 revolution will not last until its fortieth birthday.”
In his speech to a conference of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), the notorious group behind biggest terror attacks in Iran, Bolton also said they would hold celebrations in Tehran before 2019.
Even at that time, the statement appeared more like a case of wishful thinking.

It’s All Illusion

In fact, the US politicians have long been talking of the Islamic Republic’s imminent demise.
The US pressure campaign against Tehran was launched just months into the revolution, after US officials were convinced the Islamic Republic was not something they could stand.
Western governments could live without Iran’s petrodollars and its highly profitable economic opportunities, but they couldn’t afford to see Mideast people ruled by similar dictatorships to follow in Iranians’ footsteps and copy this model in the region’s oil kingdoms.
Throughout the years since the 1979 revolution, US officials and their propaganda mouthpieces have periodically asserted the Islamic Republic is merely months away from collapse.
In fact, Bolton’s friends at MKO are a big victim of such mentality, losing thousands of forces in a plainly ridiculous operation to take Tehran and other Iranian cities in 1988.
Before them, the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had tried to bring an end to the Islamic Republic in weeks, taking advantage of Iran’s post-revolutionary chaos in the 1980s.
However, despite generous financial and arms support provided by wealthy Arab governments and the west, the Iraqi war machine failed to achieve tangible achievements after eight years of relentless war.

Manufactured Revolution

The last time we were told the end is near for the Islamic Republic was 2009, when allegations of widespread fraud in the presidential elections that year ignited street protests in Tehran and other cities.
Such claims could hardly be credible, as the victor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had won by an 11-million lead over his nearest rival and it was impossible for him to collude with hundreds of thousands of election organisers to steal so many votes.
But facts were no important to western media and politicians, who portrayed a nation tired of the revolution which had stood up to finish off a decaying regime.

For a few months, the uprising was heroically advancing, and the so-called Green Movement was to take over the country soon.
However, despite the hopes of overexcited commentators in the western press, things didn’t go as their audience would have expected.
With the predictions of the western dreamers proven untrue, then US president Barack Obama appeared to start admitting the reality about Iran, beginning with the recognition of Iran’s right to peaceful atomic energy.
The Obama administration concluded the nuclear deal with Iran and exchanged prisoners with the country, believing that the experience of decades of US hostility towards Tehran provided the Iran problem is not just another nail to be tapped by the strong US hammer.

Illusions Make Comeback

Then Donald Trump came to power and pulled out of the nuclear deal, alleging that his predecessors had not been tough enough with Tehran, mocking Obama for being too soft on Iran.
People inside the new US administration claimed there are many parallels between Iran and the former Soviet Union, believing the current president could play a part similar to former president Ronald Reagan by taking an uncompromising position towards Iran.
Soon, western governments’ propaganda mouthpieces took up the Soviet analogy as their watchword and started repeating a nearly forgotten mantra: Iranians want change.
The narrative was set up skilfully: Iran’s youth, particularly the army of the unemployed, have been hit hard by the economic downturn and other challenges and are fed up with a regime full of mischief.
The western mainstream media’s audience were endlessly told that Iranians have grown wary of the regime’s corruption and are yearning from within for transformation.
According to this narrative, the US and other western governments have a humanitarian duty to intervene and help Iranians realize their hope.

Soviet Analogy in Action

Before the 40th anniversary of the revolution, western media were publishing mountains of commentary and strident headlines raising the familiar theme of Iran’s need for change.
Reuters ran the story of a former judge who is frustrated with the revolution; the Daily Telegraph remembered “horrors” of the post-revolution Iran; and Bloomberg assertedIranians have endured 40 years of “terror, deprivation and cruelty” under the Islamic Republic.
Moreover, the Wall Street Journal said the Revolution has failed to fulfil promises; The Washington Post believed the “decaying” Islamic Republic is “showing its age” and the Christian Science Monitor claimed the country has reached a turning point.
Likewise, Financial Times reported many of those born since the 1979 Revolution want reform, France 24 quoted an expert saying the Iranian state represses its people and deprives them of the country’s wealth, and Deutsche Welle predicted the Islamic Republic is likely to be toppled in the near future.
But the noisy celebrations on Monday showed once again that the stories by narrated the dreamers in the western press and fantasies woven by hawks in the US government have little to do with reality.
The case was too big to ignore, and the western agencies had no choice but to cover the celebrations, although they sought to play down the annual event.
The celebrations were frequently referred to as “state-organized” marches that saw tens of thousands or at best hundreds of thousands of people in Iran’s 31 provinces in attendance.

Pipe Dreams

The reaction of the US government was even more interesting.
Presumably, the size of crowds in the February 11 celebrations could be the first indicator of the success of the so-called “maximum pressure” campaign, designed to bring Iran to its knees.
Trump and Bolton were so annoyed by the popular celebrations that they issued separate messages hours later, with the advisor denouncing the “Iranian regime” which “has failed to fulfil its promises.”
They seem to be convinced that the Iranian government is vulnerable to collapse and tough US sanctions could hasten its demise.
But Iran has been under sanctions for over forty years. Why should we believe the new round of US sanctions will bring a collapse of the Islamic Republic now?
The reason why the Islamic Republic survives such undue pressure is a story for another day, but it seems safe to conclude that the current US pressure campaign is doomed.
There is no doubt that the Iranian government faces a series of unnerving domestic and foreign challenges. But the 40-year-old Islamic Republic is different from the one that emerged in 1979.
Iran has now secured itself, boosted its regional influence and established a buffer zone between its borders and hostile powers.
It has grown domestically, too, trying to keep up with a dynamic society.
More importantly, many Iranians are now convinced they have to stand on their feet and bear US pressures, having experienced first-hand that the US is a hopeless case.

Alireza Hashemi, Iran Front Page,
Alireza Hashemi is an Iranian political journalist with several years of experince working for Iran’s English and Persian-Language media who regularly contributes to IFPnews. He previosly served as a staff writer at Financial Tribune.

February 16, 2019 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

The Proof of US Cold Shoulder for Rajavi

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets with Iranian women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad

Masoumeh (Masih) Alinejad-Ghomi, an Iranian American journalist, author and activist who currently works as a presenter at VOA Persian Service, met with Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo in the White House on February 4, 2019.

I am not sure about the significance of this meeting – there have been different and even opposite points of views expressed in the Iranian communities both inside and outside Iran.

But something I am quite sure of is that Maryam Rajavi, the so-called leader of the Iranian Resistance and self-proclaimed President of Iran in exile, has been dreaming for many years to get a visa to visit the United States. But let alone not even getting near to the White House or the Secretary of State she has had no luck whatsoever with getting her visa.

Rajavi tries to give the false impression that her so-called alternative to the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK, MKO, NCR, or the Rajavi Cult), has close ties with the US and has the support of the west, but her well paid lobbyists such as Rudi Giuliani and John Bolton did not even manage to get a visa for her to enter the States despite their extensive and expensive efforts.

I also know that for many years her well known British lawyers and parliamentary lobbyists in London didn’t succeed in getting a visa for her to visit the UK despite opening a lawsuit in the Judiciary and spend a lot of money on it.

The open meeting of Masih Alinejand and Mike Pompeo clearly proves the cold shoulder the US officials have always shown to the MEK and its leaders through the years. But why?

The answer is quite simple. For the very fact that everyone in the west and especially the United States clearly knows how this cult is hated by Iranians. Personalities such as the Secretary of State are well aware that getting near to this notorious cult will not only bring them no credit, but on the contrary would cost their own credibility.

The Trump administration might not mind using the MEK covertly for various purposes against the Islamic Republic of Iran, but surely not at the cost of losing its international reputation.

Ebrahim Khodabandeh

February 13, 2019 0 comments

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