Paid advocacy for MKO

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

The AI report which whitewashes the MEK

Towards the end of 2018, a flawed and suspicious 140-page report was published by Amnesty International (AI) about events which took place in Iran in the summer of 1988. This report, after more than 30 years, talked about the alleged executions of Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) members. The MEK was referred to as a peaceful democratic opposition to the Islamic Republic of Iran even though the MEK was conducting terrorist and military operations against Iran before and after that time.Examination shows that the report was written by Raha Bahreini, Mansoureh Mills, Shadi Sadr, and of course mainly by the MEK in Albania, and it was approved for publication by Philip Luther, research director for MENA (Middle East and North Africa) at AI.
Following publication of the report many families and victims of the MEK sent letters of complaint to Mr Luther at philip.luther@amnesty.org about anomalies in the report. To date, these have remained unanswered and AI has apparently adopted a policy of ignoring and silence.
When approached in person, AI officials have not accepted responsibility for the content of this report and have instead referred complainants to the authors at raha.bahreini@amnesty.org and mansoureh.mills@amnesty.org and asked them to send their complaints to the writers directly, which is quite odd. Amnesty International did not deny the role of the MEK and Shadi Sadr in preparing this report.
One of the central complaints about this shameful whitewashing propaganda piece by AI concerns the war crimes committed by the MEK in its Eternal Light operation. This operation took place less than a month before the executions. Yet amazingly in these 140 pages there was no mention of the over ambitious and doomed military invasion into Iran in which more than 3000 MEK members – many non-combatant civilians – were killed. Responsibility for the Eternal Light operation lies entirely with the MEK, in particular the leaders Massoud and Maryam Rajavi.
Another glaring fault is that all those whose testimony was included in the report are supporters of the MEK. Yet there are many, many families both in and outside Iran who do not support the MEK but whose testimony was not invited. The report cannot be said to be fair or independent based on this omission.
Among other complaints are that the report does not mention that currently the MEK, facilitated by the Albanian government, still does not allow families to have contact with their loved ones trapped in this group in the closed camp in Manez in Albania. This represents an ongoing violation of basic human rights which families have complained about for several years now.
It is a great pity that a human rights organization with more than a half-century background, has become a tool for political games in the region, and has produced such a long-outdated, narrowly researched and biased report, without addressing any of the complaints it has provoked.
In this regard, the first letter of complaint sent by the families to the Secretary General of Amnesty International Mr. Kumi Naidoo at sct@amnesty.org.uk can be found at the link below:

MEK (Rajavi cult) victims’ families reject Amnesty International report endorsing gross human rights abuse in Albania

January 8, 2019 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

2018 is gone! The collapse of John Bolton’s dream for the MEK

As the world rings in the New Year, hostages of the Mujahedin Khalq (the MKO, MEK, PMOI, the Cult of Rajavi) residing in Camp Ashraf 3 near Tirana, Albania still wait for the promises of their masters to come true. Actually their 40 -year-old promise is the overthrow of the Islamic Republic.
The promise has been repeatedly stated by the MEK’s foreign sponsors including from Saudi Arabian prince Turkie Faisal to US president’s national security advisor John Bolton. John Bolton is estimated to have received 180000 $ for only one year (2017) of lobbying for the MEK.
Therefore it was no surprise to see Bolton so excited to flatter the MEK leaders. In July of 2017, the MEK’s paid supporter gave a speech at the group’s so-called Grand Gathering of Iranians for Free Iran in which he openly called for regime change in Tehran.
“There is a viable opposition to the rule of the ayatollahs, and that opposition is centered in this room today,” he uttered at the gathering in front of Maryam Rajavi. “I had said for over 10 years since coming to these events, that the declared policy of the United States of America should be the overthrow of the mullahs’ regime in Tehran. The behavior and the objectives of the regime are not going to change, and therefore the only solution is to change the regime itself. And that’s why, before 2019, we here will celebrate in Tehran!”
Now that 2018 is gone, John Bolton is not able to rationalize his unfulfilled promise as well as the MEK leaders whose annual promise is the overthrow of the Iranian government at the beginning of the Persian New Year.
However, naturally Bolton’s speech receives more attention as he is definitely a more influential figure than the MEK leaders. BBC Persian’s NYC/UN correspondent, Bahman Kalbasi’s ironic tweet on the New Year ’s Eve recalls the shallowness of claims of the MEK and its paid sponsors:

There is still a few hours left before John Bolton runs out of time to fulfill his promise to celebrate with a group that used to be on US terror list for almost 2 decades in #Tehran, #Iran. #2019

The post was retweeted 181 times and was likes by 666 people. The comments on the post are also worth reading.

It is obvious that John Bolton is considered as a stupid warmonger politician who supports the traitors to Iran, the violent Mujahedin Khalq Organization that has almost no popular base in Iran.
“It would be hard to find a serious observer who believes the MEK has the capacity or support within Iran to overthrow the Islamic republic,” states Arron Merat of the Guardian. “But the US and UK politicians loudly supporting a tiny revolutionary group stranded in Albania are playing a simpler game: backing the MEK is the easiest way to irritate Tehran.”
By Mazda Parsi

January 2, 2019 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

What is going on in the US-Israel-MEK triangle?

Since the fall of the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ the Cult of Rajavi) has turned into the strange bedfellow of the US and Israel. The MEK’s Camp Ashraf was placed under the protection of the US military after the collapse of Saddams’ regime although the group was considered by the then US president George W. Bush as one of the terrorist groups that Saddam Hussein sponsored, and eventually a pretext to invade Iraq.
The US forces to protect Camp Ashraf was commanded by Colonel Wesley Martin who is now an ardent advocate of the MEK.

“MEK made the transition from terrorist group to “champions of Iranian democracy” by virtue of intensive lobbying of Iran haters,” writes Philip Giraldi former CIA official. Nine years later, the group was removed from the US State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations. [1]

It was then relocated to Albania by the financial help of the US and the supervision of the UNHCR. All these supportive actions were being done while reports on the human rights abuses inside the MEK were frequently published by Western organizations and human rights bodies. However, the US did not care for what is the reality of the MEK. MEK was embraced because it was the enemy of the enemy of the US.
The group was also an operative arm for the US’s close ally Israel.

“What it comes down to is that people like Colonel Wes Martin, unfortunately proliferating in the U.S. government, hate Iran for a whole lot of reasons that have nothing to do with national security,” Giraldi suggests. “Israel and its lobby are certainly an element as is the need for enemies to feed the paranoia that drives and funds the military industrial complex. Martin reveals his ignorance when he objects to what he believes to be Iranian government efforts to “neutralize the MEK as the primarily (sic) threat to the Iranian regime.” That claim is complete nonsense. MEK worked with Saddam Hussein to kill Iranians, just as it earlier killed Americans. It is hated in Iran and has little support inside the country. It is a terrorist group, currently being used by the CIA and Israel’s Mossad to assassinate and otherwise kill still more Iranians. This is why luminaries like Mike Pompeo and John Bolton and Colonel Martin love it, not because it is poised to bring democracy to Iran.” [2]

The Israeli influence to preserve the MEK as the proxy force keeps on working after the relocation of the group in Europe. False flag operations to accuse Iranian governments of terrorist attacks in Europe, one day in Denmark and another day in Albania. The recent expulsion of the Iranian diplomats from Albania was reacted by the Iranian foreign Ministry and even the Albanian journalists and scholars.

“The whole history of the expulsion of the Iranian diplomats from Albania seems like a Trump – Netanyahu desperate affair which uses poor, corrupt and obedient Albania for their global confrontation with the European Union and other major world powers against Iran,” states Olsi Jazexhi the Canadian-Albanian historian. “The Americans and Israelis know that Edi Rama and his corrupt government will not dare to say no to the Americans. After the announcement, Rama was congratulated by the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump and others in the U.S. administration for the ‘brave act’ that Albania and he probably did not know was coming.” [3]

Jazexhi who is specialized in the history of Islam, nationalism and religious reformation in Southeastern Europe, accurately criticizes the Albanian President Edi Rama for being so reckless that he cannot resist the US-Israeli pressures on his government so as he has to receive “Marayam Rajavi as a member of his government”.

“PM Edi Rama, who should feel very nervous about the way that Israel, the U.S. and MEK have taken control over the foreign policy of his country, has not commented on the event yet,” he writes. “He understands that the old terrorist lady Maryam Rajavi and her jihadi soldiers whom Edi Rama welcomed generously in Albania in 2015, have now managed to take hostage the foreign policies of his country. Edi Rama whose government has voted against Israel and Trump in the United Nations on the question of Jerusalem, in order to appease the Europeans, knows that the Europeans are angry about what is going on with his country’s foreign policy. The expulsion of the Iranian diplomats will not sound good in Brussels. MEK, Israel and the U.S. are using Albania as a prostitute in their confrontation with Europe and Iran. However, Madam Maryam Rajavi, who claims to her jihadi radicals that she is the president-elect of Iran, should be smiling now. The Americans and Israelis have now set her to act as the Foreign Minister of Albania even though Edi Rama welcomed her in Albania in 2015 as a war refugee and not as a member of his government.” [4]

Moreover, Medea Benjamin the prominent peace activist adds Saudi Arabia to the MEK sponsors who share their animosity against Iran,

“And I think it’s because “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” kind of thing. We see now the Saudis working with Israel against Iran,” he told Ben Norton in the interview on the Real News Network. “And so many people in the Democratic Party are still beholden to the Israeli government and the lobby groups like AIPAC, and the Israeli government is determined to find a way to overthrow the Iranian regime.” [5]

Therefore, the entire credit that the MEK gets from the US, Israel and Saudi is not because of its democratic capacities but because of its undemocratic and violent background that proves it as a viable proxy force to serve the ambitions of the enemies of the Iranian nation.
By Mazda Parsi

References:
[1] Giraldi, Philip, Why the United States Has Not Won a Real War Since 1945, the American Herald Tribune, December 16th ,2018.
[2] ibid
[3] Jazexhi, Olsi, Has Donald Trump Appointed Madam Maryam Rajavi As Foreign Minister Of Albania?, Iranian.com, December 20th, 2018.
[4] ibid
[5]Norton, Ben, Dispelling Myths About Iran, Trump’s Bogeyman, the Real News Network, December 17th, 2018.

December 29, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Albania Expels Iranian Ambassador in Naively Orchestrated Move Disclosing Sovereignty Issues

The Albanian government expelled two Iranian diplomats on Thursday as concerns in Tirana are growing over the nation’s weakening independence and sovereignty under US dictates.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama decided to expel Iranian Ambassador Gholam Hossein Mohammadnia and another diplomat, as part of the US requests from Tirana that also include granting growing influence to the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as MEK, NCRI and PMOI) terrorist organization in Albania.

The move by the Albanian government came after months of warnings by Albanian activists and media about the growing influence of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization among Tirana officials. The MKO and the White House had both requested the Albanian government to expel Iranian diplomats and cut off ties with Iran.

Daily Panorama quoted sources in Albania’s foreign ministry as saying that the “hard decision was taken by the prime minister in consultations and full coordination with the international allies”.

But a letter wrote to Rama on December 14 by US President Donald Trump indicated that the prime minister has not made the decision on his own, thanking the permier for “joint efforts”.

The letter released in the US embassy’s facebook page said that “we commend the Government of Albania for taking action against the Iranian regime” for what it called as its terrorist plotting on Albanian soil, threatening European security.

More surprisingly, the news on the expulsion of the Iranian ambassador from Albania was first declared by White House National Security Advisor John Bolton on twitter.

“Prime Minister Edi Rama of Albania just expelled the Iranian ambassador, signaling to Iran’s leaders that their support for terrorism will not be tolerated. We stand with PM Rama and the Albanian people as they stand up to Iran’s reckless behavior in Europe and across the globe,” Bolton wrote on Twitter.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also rushed to praise Rama, and pledged support to Albania for expelling the Iranian ambassador.

Later in the day, Albanian government acknowledged that the decision was prescribed by Israel and the US, saying that they have been receiving consultation from both Tel Aviv and Washington. The United States has long been pursuing a plan to turn Albania into the frontline of militancy against Iran.

Ever since their expulsion from Iraq, the MKO – a terrorist organization with a several-decade-long history that includes assassination of 12,000 Iranians and a number of foreign citizens – has found a strong foothold in Albania after US and Israeli official requests from Tirana to host the main camp of the terrorist group and embark on widening security cooperation with MKO. The Rajavi cult has been spending millions of dollars to buy influence among Albanian officials in the last few years.

The MKO had also asked the Albanian government to sever ties with Tehran in messages that increasingly appeared on its social media outlets in the last several weeks.

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.

A sum of 17,000 Iranians have lost their lives in terror attacks in the 35 years after the Revolution.

After the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, the MKO was exiled first to Iraq and then to Albania. Albania houses 3,000 MKO members.

Since last year, a slew of US politicians have visited the MKO in Albania, often without any public announcement, or under cover of meeting some Albanian politicians. These include former FBI director Louis J. Freeh, US Senator John McCain (who addressed a MKO conference), and a delegation of US Senators Thom Tillis, Roy Blunt, and John Cornyn.

A few months later, US Congressman Ted Poe introduced a bill in the House of Representatives calling upon the government of Iraq “to compensate the former residents of Camp Ashraf (the former MKO camp) for their assets seized by groups affiliated with the Government of Iraq.”

Media reports said in June 2018 that John Bolton received $40,000 to participate and address the audience in a gathering of the MKO terrorist group in Paris in July 2017.

According to documents released by al-Monitor news website, the US Public Financial Disclosure Report in January 2018 for Bolton indicated that he has received $40,000 from the MKO as speaking fee in Paris gathering.

The date of speaking is July 1, 2017, and the event was titled ‘Globe Events–European Iranian Events’.

Bolton had in the same date attended the MKO gathering in Paris, stressing during his address that the Islamic Republic should not be allowed to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Revolution in Iran.

During his address, he said that Trump is fully opposed to the “regime in Tehran”.

“The outcome of the president’s policy review should be to determine that the Ayatollah Khomeini’s 1979 revolution will not last until its 40th birthday,” Bolton said.

Recently, Joanne Stocker, of the US portal Defense Post, told NBC that Bolton had received more than $180,000 from the MKO to speak in their favor. Bolton’s office has so far refused to comment on it.

(End)

December 22, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Pandeli Majko prefers to get paid by Mojahedin Khalq , leaving Tirana to burn

On December 15, 2018, at a time when all Albania is protesting against the corrupt regime of the Resurgence government of Rama, and the Albanian people demand that the Rama government be dismissed, Rama’s Minister of the Diaspora instead of solving the Albanian students’ problems who are protesting against the government, has chosen to resolve Iran’s problems. Together with a bunch of international opportunists, Pandeli has gone to the annual meeting of Maryam Rajavi with her jihadists at the Mojahedin Camp in Manzas.
At this meeting, Pandeli has attacked the government of Iran and has expressed his support for the Iranian terrorist group that the corrupt Rama government harbors and enables with better conditions than Albanians in the jihadist camp in Manzas. Pandeli, who was cheered on by Iranian terrorists and the old terrorist old woman Rajavi, spoke in the jihadist tone, “Thank you very much”. Very excited and talking in broken English he said among other things:

“It’s a great honor as always to talk to you. Not as a minister or a former prime minister, but primarily as your friend. I know, as Mr Patrick Kennedy said earlier, it is a question why Albania has an Iranian official embassy in Tirana, and at the same time we host you. Why both? It’s a simple and honest question. And my answer is that we have had the official Tehran Embassy here for years, and they are here because of international law. But you are here for another cause. The Iranian Embassy represents the country today, while the MEK represents the Iran of the future.
“I am very proud that I and many of my friends are in the hands of Maryam Rajavi, one of the few women who will, with her leadership, change not only the future of Iran but also of the Middle East.
“I know that much news exists that says MEK is a terrorist group, they have done this and have done that. But this does not bother me at all! Because we know you, you came here under the umbrella of the UN and UNHCR. You and terrorism are two different things. You do not have diplomats who use diplomatic status to hide behind as terrorists. But some Iranian officials have done so. And acting like a terrorist while pretending to be a diplomat is a contradiction. But this is not up to me or Albanians, Iranian officials must give their full explanation. Things have changed, and times will change quickly. It is certain that the time is coming, and this piano melody that is playing here in Tirana will be sung throughout Iran as a song.
“I will not speak much, for many reasons, since today I did not know I even had to give a speech. But when you have friends like Hassan, who just said to me: ‘Pandeli, it’s your turn to talk’, believe me when I stand before you myself, a government official, but now that I have met you I know you very well and I’m sure that you and your families now understand that you are not just refugees like a few years ago, but you are now in your land. You have done in less than a year, performed a miracle by building a city. We Albanians say in Albanian: my home is my homeland. Albania is your homeland.

“Thank you”

Pandeli’s speech was one of several at this meeting held by Maryam Rajavi – who along with the others cried over the problems of the Iranian people, people whom she, her husband and her jihadists have killed over the years. Maryam Rajavi’s lips did not mention anything about Albania, which is blocked by protesters demanding regime change. The whole problem for the old terrorists, but also Minister Pandeli Majko who eats Albanian bread, has been Iran.
Pandeli’s speech above, which broke international law and domestic law by saying ‘I do not care that you are terrorists, etc.’, tells of Rama’s arrogance, bribery and thievery. At a time when Tirana and all of Albania are consumed by protest, Pandeli and Maryam Rajavi have chosen to pretend to be a whore when a village burns.
Translated by Iran Interlink

December 20, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Europe’s Extreme Right Is In Bed With MEK

Until recently Spain was the envy of Europe. While in most countries the resurgence of the populist right was reshaping national politics, Spain was able to dodge the trend: a centre-right government lost power six months ago in a no confidence vote, and was replaced, in an orderly fashion, by a centre-left one. A minority Socialist government, which had more female ministers than male, steered the country in a decidedly pro-European direction. The extreme right, meanwhile, polled in single digits.
Not any longer. The December 2 regional elections in Andalucia, Spain’s largest region, saw a noisy irruption of Vox, a hitherto marginal extreme right party, into Spanish political life. Vox won almost 11% of the popular vote, which gave it 12 seats in the 109-seat regional chamber. For the first time since the death of the dictator Francisco Franco in mid-1970s, the extreme right has entered a Spanish parliament, albeit for now only a regional one.
Vox leader Santiago Abascal is a professed admirer of Marine Le Pen, the leader of the French extreme right, and built his campaign on a platform of Euro-scepticism, anti-feminism, xenophobia, and exacerbated Spanish nationalism. The transatlantic extreme right political guru Steve Bannon sees Vox as a valuable part of his global ideological crusade against the “liberal elite” and “cultural Marxism”.
What is less known is that Vox’s emergence is intimately linked to Mojaheddeen-e Khalk (MEK), an exiled Iranian cult bitterly opposed to the current government of Iran. MEK was on European Union’s terrorist list until 2009 and on the U.S. terrorist list until 2012.

The Vox-MEK link goes beyond any ideological affinity that might exist between the two groups. According to an investigation on Vox’ finances conducted by El Pais, a leading Spanish newspaper, Vox received a donation of 500.000 euros from MEK, acting under the umbrella of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), in 2014. The money reportedly came via thousands of contributions ranging from 200 to 5000 euros from individual members and sympathisers of the NCRI. This money allowed the party to kick-start its election campaign for the European Parliament.

The person who played a key role in securing this funding was Alejo Vidal-Quadras, a veteran Spanish politician who served as a vice-president of the European Parliament from 2009 to 2014. Vidal-Quadras abandoned his center-right Partido Popular (People’s Party—PP) in 2013, on the grounds that it moved too far to the center under the leadership of Spain’s former prime-minister Mariano Rajoy. He became one of the founders of Vox, which sought to attract the disaffected voters of the right.
During his years as a vice-president, Vidal-Quadras was the most influential MEK lobbyist in the EP, leading the cross-party group “Friends of Free Iran“. This group acted mostly as a mouthpiece for the MEK. In his role as a vice-president he hosted on numerous occasions the NCRI “president-elect” Maryam Rajavi in the European Parliament.
At first sight, Vidal-Quadras and Rajavi would make strange bedfellows. Given Spain’s own traumatic experience with terrorism, the country’s right-wing has traditionally projected an image of unwavering toughness on the issue. Vidal-Quadras, however, saw no qualms in advocating for a removal of an avowedly Islamic-Marxist cult like MEK from the EU terrorist list—an effort that eventually culminated successfully in 2009. A self-professed defender of the “West”, Vidal-Quadras was lobbying on behalf of an organisation that was responsible for terrorist attacks on Westerners in Iran.
Vox did not make it to the EP in 2014, and Vidal-Quadras eventually parted ways with the party in 2015. He still spends a lot of time in Brussels, however, continuing to promote the NCRI/MEK, now through the “International Committee in Search of Justice” (ICSJ). Unfortunately the ICSJ’s website shows a marked lack of transparency. It gives no disclosure on its funding and staff. It claims that it “enjoyed the support of over 4000 parliamentarians on both sides of Atlantic”, but doesn’t identify a single one. Despite its lofty name, it seems to be narrowly focused on pushing the NCRI/MEK agenda of regime change in Iran. In sum, the “committee” looks more like a one-man operation.
Vidal-Quadras may no longer be with Vox, but that hardly means that MEK-Vox ties are severed. Rafael Bardaji, a former adviser to the Spanish prime-minister Jose Maria Aznar, recently joined Vox and is a staunch advocate of Trump’s “maximum pressure” policy against Iran. And Aznar himself addressed a MEK rally in Paris in 2010.
Current leaders of Vox insist that they no longer receive any funding from foreign sources. They claim that the party is supported exclusively by small Spanish firms and crowdfunding. This, however, flies in the face of the party’s apparent financial strength, as reported by El Pais, which has enabled it to acquire real estate, hire new personnel, pay lawyers to file complaints and petitions against the government, etc. Former party leaders accuse the current leadership of running financially opaque operations, falling far short of satisfying legal standards for transparency.
Whatever the financial status of Vox currently, the role of MEK in enabling this newcomer into the ranks of Europe’s extreme right cannot be ignored. It should also serve as a wake-up call to mainstream Western politicians who have allowed themselves to be fooled by MEK’s siren songs about democracy and secularism in Iran.
This article reflects the personal views of the author and not necessarily the opinions of the European Parliament.

By Eldar Mamedov, Lobelog

ELDAR MAMEDOV
Eldar Mamedov has degrees from the University of Latvia and the Diplomatic School in Madrid, Spain. He has worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia and as a diplomat in Latvian embassies in Washington D.C. and Madrid. Since 2007, Mamedov has served as a political adviser for the social-democrats in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (EP) and is in charge of the EP delegations for inter-parliamentary relations with Iran, Iraq, the Arabian Peninsula, and Mashreq.

December 19, 2018 0 comments

USA

A sharp decline in America’s power

Everything began from a memory; a memory of the future of the reality of US policies and some officials.
Secretary of the National Security Council, Mr. Shamkhani, quoted a memory of his Educational period which is Remarkable.
The content of this memory is that he faces an interesting phenomenon in helping his classmate in the exam session, which is that the classmate attached Shamkhani’s help sheet to his exam sheet, and the result is the failure of both.

The reason for attaching the help sheet was that the classmate had a meeting with his fiancée and has done this because of the lack of time.
Shamkhani attribute this memory to Bolton, the national security advisor to Trump and said:” Apparently John Bolton also has an appointment. ”

He also said that:” It is a shame for a government to basing Bolton for Strategic Decision Making against Iran, the person who cooperates with MKO. At least, change the words”
The compliance of the US government with a terrorist cult of the MKO does not mean increasing the power of this cult, but it means a sharp decline in America’s power.

The country that claimed to have a superpower on a day and regarded itself as the only power of the world, now is in a position to ask for help from terrorist sects such as the MKO to achieve its goals.
A country that claims to operate the world order and seeks to establish peace and human rights, it has to shelter to sects, which are the ultimate mirror of assassination and violence.
According to many experts, the national and strategic documents of a country represent the horizons of a country’s vision.

Also, most of these documents are prepared and drafted by experts and on the basis of current and future prospects, but take a look at the US strategic documents.
Recent comments by Mr. Shamkhani, secretary of the National Security Council about the unchanged texts of the MKO in the US strategic document and quoted by some US officials, such as John Bolton, are not.
This deniable truth makes America’s strategy doesn’t include the realities and the desirable future.
The question is, who is the reference of US news and strategic texts about Iran and what are the characteristics?
The answer to this question can tell the American authorities the misconception about the facts.

According to evidence, the terrorist sect of the MKO impose their views by communicating with some naïve US officials And presents the obvious news inside Iran as secret and strategic texts.
But history should reminded to these naïve authorities to understand this terrorist cult better and not simply accept their words.
The MKO, with a history of the assassination of 17,000 innocent people in Iran, has always been a part of the disgusting group of public opinion, and they always will remember this.
A sect known for treason, assassination, war, and has always faced a strategic mistake in its judgments about the Iranian nation, how can present these realities to American officials?

The sect has committed historical mistakes including “the leftist conception of the Islamic Revolution, the idea of the people’s companionship with them, the conquest of Tehran in a few days, electoral predictions and, eventually, the collapse of today and tomorrow in the Islamic Republic of Iran” and to get out of this swamp, it has turned to imaginary and repeated strategies, how can help with American strategies against Iran?
But a desirable future;

According the facts that the US decision-making systems are considering, is there a desirable future?
American historical behavior shows that they have always failed to predict their future toward Iran.
Interestingly, these failures have been the product of long and widespread American think-tank experts; these failures seem to be persistent and even worse.

Because in the past there were some reason and logic, but what would be the bigger catastrophe for the United States that to know behind the scenes, there were some statements and decisions of the MKO.
If there is an impossible assumption of a wise American attitude, it is better to change its course and begin to relocate to those who have always been with the terrorists and then review their strategic texts with more realistic literature.

October 25, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

The Fake Iranian Resistance, US Paid Terror Trolls

CIA run troll factory in Albania busted for influencing media with fake Twitter trends, personal attacks and even terror threats.

CIA troll farm is in a former Soviet military base.

https://dlb.nejatngo.org/Media/Report/Aljazeera_MKO_Bots.mp4

From Albania, the MEK has joined with the Albanian mafia, running weapons and drugs into Europe.

Behind this all, as the CIA’s primary contractor, is Google Jigsaw, Google Idea Groups, Twitter and Facebook, and Israel’s huge lobby inside the fake news media.

By Gordon Duff, Senior Editor, Veteran Today

October 18, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

As Twitter Purges Real Iranians, US-Backed MEK Cult Revealed to Run Anti-Iran Troll Farm

While “actual” Iranians face social media bans, countless bots and anti-government accounts belonging to the US-backed former terror group, MEK, have been permitted to run rampant across Twitter and other platforms.

TIRANA, ALBANIA – Iran is once again being subject to double standards as part of an ongoing effort to deprive it of access to media platforms where it can influence audiences overseas – in this case, on Twitter.

The effort has seen hundreds of Iranian accounts allegedly tied to Iranian pro-government “propaganda” efforts subject to a massive cull across platforms owned by Twitter Inc., Facebook Inc., and Google parent company Alphabet Inc.

Those purged from the platforms include profiles, channels, and accounts belonging to Iranian nationals who have been accused of involvement in alleged “coordinated manipulation” of information related to Middle Eastern events and ”divisive social commentary.”

On YouTube, this has included accounts belonging to media entities owned by Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, the state media corporation that operates such channels as the English-language PressTV and Spanish-language HispanTV.

https://dlb.nejatngo.org/Media/Report/Aljazeera_MKO_Bots.mp4

Watch | Al Jazeera on Albania’s Iranian Regime Change Bot Factory

Yet while “actual” Iranians face bans from social media, countless bots and anti-government accounts belonging to U.S.-backed opposition groups posturing as the “Iranian people resistance” have been permitted to run rampant across the web.

#YouAreBots

Last month, nearly 800 accounts based in Iran were suspended by Twitter for allegedly violating the network’s policies, per an investigation alongside “industry peers” that allowed the social media giants a better “understanding of these [Iranian] networks.” Twitter hasn’t been forthcoming about the methods it used to investigate the networks tied to such alleged “Iranian interference,” but users including patriotic university student SeyedMousavi7 and Press TV journalist Waqar Rizvi were among those suspended.

SeyedMousavi7 was banned from Twitter after a major censorship campaign claiming he is part of a “propaganda ring.” He’s actually a student from #Iran and came to discuss politics just like everyone else. When it comes to voicing opinions, he says the platform is rigged. pic.twitter.com/StSI8caMp7— iranmilitaryvlog (@irmilitaryvlog) August 23, 2018

On Sunday, Foreign Minister Zarif directly addressed Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in a tweet aiming to highlight the contradiction:

Hello @Jack. Twitter has shuttered accounts of real Iranians, incl TV presenters & students, for supposedly being part of an ‘influence op’. How about looking at actual bots in Tirana used to prop up ‘regime change’ propaganda spewed out of DC? #YouAreBots”

Another tweet by Iranian legislator Amirhossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi addressed to the Twitter chief said:

You suspended my official account as MP of Iran for my violation of not determined twitter rules, but why you have not blocked bots of MEK in Tirana, a group that killed 17000 Iranian people, used to prop up ‘regime change’ propaganda? #YouAreBots”

The tweet followed a report by Al Jazeera English which detailed how monitors and researchers were able to pinpoint a sharp uptick in a trend of actual social media manipulation.

The Wizard Behind the “Resistance” Curtain – Maryam Rajavi and the MEK Cult

The report connected the growing phenomenon to the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) or People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), a cultish group of Iranian exiles that was listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. until 2012 and have been based in a camp outside the Albanian capital, Tirana, since the U.S. began openly backing it in 2013.

The group has long enjoyed the backing of the Iranian government’s enemies, ranging from toppled dictator Saddam Hussein to Israel and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Hiding behind various front groups like the France-based “parliament-in-exile,” The National Council of Resistance of Iran, the MEK has sought to depict itself as a representative, democratic coalition that speaks for all of Iran’s religious, ethnic, and political groups proportionately” and is committed to a secular, pro-market, and free Iran.

The group has paid a number of top Trump administration officials to speak at its functions and echo its calls to enact a “regime change” in Tehran, including former New York City Mayor and top White House lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, and National Security Advisor John Bolton, among a long list of U.S. lawmakers and officials.

Yet the group, which have also been described as “skilled manipulators of public opinion,” are said by ex-members to tolerate little internal dissent and are seen by many as little more than a well-funded, mafia-style cult commanded by self-styled “Iranian President-in-Exile” Maryam Rajavi and backed by her friends across Western and Gulf capitals.

#FreeIran is our goal for our homeland #Iran! 1500 Iranian American delegates and leaders from 40 states will be in NY on 09/22. #FreeIran is only possible by the help of organized resistance led @Maryam_Rajavi. #FreeIran2018 @SecPompeo@nikkihaley @USAdarFarsi @fox5ny @VOAIran pic.twitter.com/iBCxFyTZ0x

— OIAC (@OrgIAC) September 18, 2018

Some who escaped the MEK and remain stranded in Tirana spoke to Al Jazeera and described the manner in which the cult orchestrated what appeared to be a trending wave of support for the group and its anti-regime message toward the end of last year, when Iranians took to the streets to protest adverse economic conditions largely caused by a mixture of domestic legislation and intense pressure by Washington.

Much of this trend was clearly fueled by bots – accounts that are often fraudulent and behave in an automated fashion, amplifying messages through swarm-like behavior such as retweeting, liking, and republishing videos and articles posted alongside hashtags such as #FreeIran and #IranRegimeChange.

In many cases these trends – which sought to focus, variously, on the plight of Iran’s national or religious minority groups ranging from Kurds to Christians, women’s rights groups, and dissidents –grew as a direct result of work by MEK members toiling away in an Albanian troll farm to boost their group’s online propaganda.

Former MEK militant Hassan Heyrani told the outlet:

Overall I would say that several thousand accounts are managed by about 1,000-1,500 MEK members … It was all very well organized and there were clear instructions about what needed to be done.”

Another former “keyboard warrior,” Hassan Shahbaz, added:

Our orders would tell us the hashtags to use in our tweets in order to make them more active … It was our job to provide coverage of these protests by seeking out, tweeting and re-tweeting videos while adding our own comments.”

Working with our industry peers today, we have suspended 284 accounts from Twitter for engaging in coordinated manipulation. Based on our existing analysis, it appears many of these accounts originated from Iran.

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) August 22, 2018

Useful Tools in the Age of Trump

Journalist, writer and scholar Azadeh Moaveni told Al Jazeera that the 2016 election of former real estate mogul Donald Trump, who surrounded himself during his campaign with a range of zealous anti-Iran and pro-Israel hawks, was a turning point in such anti-IRI media operations.

“Once it became clear that there would be heightened hostility with Iran, there was a profusion of new accounts, anonymous accounts who were single-mindedly and purposefully going after people who wrote about, talked about Iran with nuance,” she noted.

Whether the report, or Iran’s demands, will have any impact on the continued backing of MEK by Iran’s opponents remains yet to be seen. In the last year alone, a bevy of U.S. figures including late Senator John McCain, former FBI Director Louis J. Freeh, and various senators have visited the Rajavi cult’s compound in Albania as U.S. rhetoric against Iran’s “regime” has escalated and the U.S. has unilaterally withdrawn from the six-party Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or nuclear accord.

In the meantime, social media networks like Twitter and Facebook have squirmed as the same U.S. lawmakers have sought to crack down on alleged Russian and Iranian “interference” online.

Without a doubt, the troll farms of the MEK will remain an important weapon in the arsenal of those seeking to manufacture the illusion of widespread anti-government fervor in an Iran under the gun of economic sanctions, media terrorism, and the low-intensity warfare of sustained “regime change” efforts.

Top Photo | Iranians surf the Internet at a cafe in Tehran, Iran, Sept, 17, 2013. Ebrahim Noroozi | AP

Elliott Gabriel is a former staff writer for teleSUR English and a MintPress News contributor based in Quito, Ecuador. He has taken extensive part in advocacy and organizing in the pro-labor, migrant justice and police accountability movements of Southern California and the state’s Central Coast.

by Elliott Gabriel, Mint Press

October 17, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Trump War Whore Celebrates Starvation Of Iranian Civilians At MEK Rally

Just when you thought this administration couldn’t get more cartoonishly villainous, Trump lawyer and Simon Bar Sinister stunt double Rudy Giuliani takes to the stage and enthuses about how US sanctions are making Iranian citizens so desperate they are offering to sell their internal organs for $500 in order to stay alive.

“Probably a fortune in Iran today. This is truly pitiful!” he crowed triumphantly to the crowd at the Iran Uprising Summit in New York on Saturday, pleased as punch by the US government’s success in torturing everyday Iranians with starvation.

Giuliani, who is basically what you’d get if necrophilia and racist police shootings had a baby, fumbled his way through a paid speech for the MEK terror cult with all the grace of a drunken creepy uncle MCing his way through a family wedding. In it he not only gloated over the starvation and severe impoverishment of Iranian civilians, but openly proclaimed that regime change was coming to Iran due to the actions of the Trump administration.

“I don’t know when we’re going to overthrow them. It could be in a few days, months, a couple of years, but it’s going to happen. They’re going to be overthrown.” Guiliani said definitively. “The people of Iran have obviously now had enough. The sanctions are working. The currency is going to nothing! They’re where Russia was. They’re where Poland was. We see signs of young men and women saying ‘Give me some food!’ We saw a sign of a man trying to sell his internal organs for five hundred American dollars – probably a fortune in Iran today! This is truly pitiful. These are the kinds of conditions that lead to successful revolution, and God willing, non-violent revolution.”

At the MEK regime change cult’s Iran Uprising Summit, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani proclaims in paid address, “They will be overthrown!” He then celebrates reports of desperate Iranians seeking to sell their organs and begging for food due to US sanctions. pic.twitter.com/AEt6Pl4y5y

— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) September 23, 2018

Truly pitiful, he reckons. That’s like standing on a patient’s oxygen hose at the hospital and then making fun of them for gasping for air. Sanctions are the only legal act of war that deliberately target innocent civilians, and here is Giuliani mocking people for the suffering he is gleefully supporting inflicting.

Corpse bride Nikki Haley was quick to distance the Trump administration from Giuliani’s regime change rhetoric, as was the US State Department in a statement to Reuters, because as we saw them do with Libya and as we’ve seen them attempt with Syria, the US government has ever since the disastrous Iraq invasion had a standing policy of denying that it is pushing for regime change in key strategic regions while doing exactly that. But Giuliani has been repeatedly appearing at these eventsspouting the exact same regime change rhetoric while retaining employment as Trump’s lawyer, and at no time has the president or anyone else in the administration made him stop. The administration can’t actually have that much of a problem with Giuliani’s schtick; if it did Giuliani would either stop or be fired.

Neither has happened. Giuliani keeps getting these lucrative speaking gigs where he champions regime change again and again, which was also done at another such event by murderous psychopath John Bolton not long before he was hired as Trump’s National Security Advisor. Giuliani’s words have the tacit blessing of the Trump administration.

Giuliani was hired to speak alongside Maryam Rajavi, the leader of the Mujahideen e Khalq (MEK), a paramilitary cult that was only recently delisted by Hillary Clinton as a designated terror group at the behest of CIA and FBI insiders and other shadow government stalwarts. The MEK was originally listed as a terrorist group because it has killed Americans and has an extensive history of committing acts of terrorism, and has recently been exposed in operating an extensive social media propaganda campaign to manufacture support for Iranian regime change in the west. Rajavi boasted at the event that her group has organized special “Units of Rebellion” to run riots and interference inside Iran, which was a pretty interesting thing to say on the very same day that there was a terror attack on a military parade in the Iranian city of Ahvaz that slaughtered 24 people and wounded many more.

At the MEK regime change cult’s Iran Uprising Summit, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani proclaims in paid address, “They will be overthrown!” He then celebrates reports of desperate Iranians seeking to sell their organs and begging for food due to US sanctions. pic.twitter.com/AEt6Pl4y5y

— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) September 23, 2018

There was no inference that the MEK was responsible for this particular attack, but it’s kind of fascinating that while Nikki Haley was telling Iran to “look in the mirror” with regard to the attack on Ahvaz because in her view, the attack came from organic civil unrest which is the fault of the Iranian government, Giuliani was celebrating that the sanctions applied by the US were working because they were causing the kind of intense suffering on civilians that leads to civil unrest and a “successful revolution”, while Rajavi was saying that her (exiled) group was planning on riots and provocations to stimulate civil unrest. Not to mention the fact that the coup-staging CIA recently escalated covert operations in that nation.

How exactly do they think this works? You can’t be boasting about your success at provoking civil unrest while pretending you’re just an innocent-but-concerned bystander who had his hands in his pockets the whole time, officer. Not a thing.

They think we’re stupid. They must, or they’d never try to get away with this bullshit. Eyes and ears open, clear-eyed rebels. The veils are being pulled back almost quicker than we can process.

caitlinjohnstone.com , Caitlin Johnstone ,

October 4, 2018 0 comments

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