It was the latest move by Albania to restrict the terrorist and cyber activities the MKO devises at the Ashraf-3 camp in the northwestern region of Tirana, Tasnim news agency reported on Saturday.

Back in June, Albanian police raided the camp on the grounds that the MKO was involved in “terror and cyber attacks” against foreign institutions.

Police in Albania have raided a camp home to the anti-Iran terrorist cult of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO).

Authorities seized 150 computer devices linked to terrorist activities. At least one person was killed and dozens of others were injured during the clashes at the camp.

In early July, Iran gained access to a batch of electronic devices and storage equipment confiscated during the search operation conducted by Albanian police.

Earlier in August, Albanian police reportedly took control of the Ashraf-3 camp and imposed a strict curfew over the entire area.

to download the video file click here

The MKO has carried out numerous terrorist attacks against Iranian civilians and government officials since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Out of the nearly 17,000 Iranians killed in terrorist attacks over the past four decades, about 12,000 have fallen victim to the MKO’s acts of terror.

The European Union, Canada, the United States and Japan had previously listed the MKO as a “terrorist organization.”

In 2012, the group was taken off the US list of terrorist organizations. The EU followed suit, removing the group from its list of terrorist organizations.

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Meanwhile, hopes of reviving the 2015 nuclear deal continue to fade as leading European countries expressed ‘serious doubts’ about Iran’s intentions.

The latest attack in Albania comes just days after Prime Minister Edi Rama accused Iran of being behind a 15 July cyberattack that brought all government websites and digital citizens’ services offline and was described by Microsoft as “destructive.”

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama

He ordered all Iranian diplomats to leave the country within 24 hours, severing all diplomatic ties with immediate effect.

On Saturday, Rama said the country’s border management information system (TIMS) was under “another cyber-attack by the same aggressors”, taking to social media a day later to confirm systems were back up and running.

“Beyond the heavy feeling created by the penetration into these systems, just like when they break into a house and steal, the fact is that the aggression has not achieved its goal at all, no disappearance or serious data leak!” Rama wrote on Twitter on Sunday.

Those trying to use the TIMS system, which records every person who enters and exits the country, were confronted by a message stating, “Albania is still paying for the terrorist acts of the MEK cult in Durres; this game will continue.”

Albania is home to the MEK group (People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran), who were transferred to Albania from an Iraqi refugee camp in 2016.

The group was founded in 1965 and engaged in militant action against the Iranian government for decades before forging an alliance with Iraq and siding with them during the Iraq-Iran war.

MEK was previously designated as a terrorist organisation by the EU, Canada, US and Japan, but this was repealed. They were given protection in 2004 by the US government under the Geneva Convention.

They aim to overthrow the Iranian government, and some 1,000 members live in a closed, heavily guarded compound 40 kilometres outside Tirana.

However, some analysts say it is not just due to MEK that Albania is being targeted. Albania is staunchly pro-American, a member of NATO and is home to a NATO airbase and, potentially, a future, a NATO naval base.

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Be vigilant

Lawyer and politician Kreshnik Spahiu told Euronews Albania that the government should be vigilant against attacks as it is “in a direct war with Iran.”

“Albania must be very prepared militarily, even with the intelligence services, but also as a society in terms of other attacks that in the future will no longer be on the Internet and social networks, but we will have consequences and physical victims,” he said.

The US National Security Council has also reacted to the latest news of the attack, stating it supports Albania’s recovery efforts.

“The United States condemns the September 9th cyberattack against our NATO Ally, Albania. This malicious activity against Albania follows the July 15 cyberattack conducted by the Government of Iran. The U.S. government is supporting Albania’s efforts to mitigate and recover,” a statement on Twitter reads.

On Friday, the US government imposed sanctions on Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security and its head, Esmail Khatib, .for cyber-related activities against the US and its allies following a Whitehouse pledging “further action.”

The Director of the Civil Aviation Authority, Maksim Et’hemaj, said the attack was sabotage and called for establishing a Crisis Coordination Committee.

“In civil aviation, what happened with the TIMS system is classified by the definition, sabotage. In such cases, in cases of sabotage, the civil aviation asks the local authorities to set up what is called the Crisis Coordination Committee,” he told Euronews Albania.

NATO and its head, Jens Stoltenberg, on Thursday (8 September) condemned the Iranian cyberattack on Albania, which saw the country cut ties with Tehran and demand all its diplomats to leave within 24 hours on Wednesday.

But it is not just Albania that has witnessed such attacks. Digital services in Kosovo and North Macedonia have also been targeted over the last few days, although it is not yet known who is behind them.

Troll farm

Meanwhile, the MEK, in March 2021, was accused by Facebook of running a troll farm out of their base in Albania.

In a statement published on their website, Facebook said they had investigated and disrupted a “long-running operation from Albania that targeted primarily Iran”

“The network violated our policy against foreign interference, which is coordinated inauthentic behaviour on behalf of a foreign entity,” they wrote in their in-depth report.

The latest escalation comes on the backdrop of increasingly bleak hopes for reviving the so-called 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) deal that gave Iran sanctions relief in return for restricting its nuclear programme.

In 2018, then US president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the accord and reimposed sanctions.

Momentum for the EU-mediated new deal that seemed to be there earlier this month appears to have since faded, with Germany, France and Britain on Saturday raising “serious doubts” in a tripartite statement about Iran’s sincerity in restoring the accord.

The European nations charged that Tehran “has chosen not to seize this critical diplomatic opportunity”, adding that “instead, Iran continues to escalate its nuclear programme way beyond any plausible civilian justification”. Iran’s foreign ministry criticised those comments as “unconstructive.”, AFP reported.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid arrived in Germany Sunday to persuade Western powers to ditch the tattered deal altogether.

By Alice Taylor – EURACTIV – Sep 12, 2022 (updated: Sep 26, 2022)

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Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s visit to Israel was focused on cybersecurity. He visited the head of Israel’s National Cyber Directorate, Gaby Portnoy, according to the Times of Israel. In September, Israel offered cyber-defense assistance to Albania, days after the Balkan state severed its diplomatic ties with Iran based on allegations that the Islamic Republic had carried out cyberattacks against the country in July.

Edi Rama visited the head of Israel’s National Cyber Directorate, Gaby Portnoy

Following the collapse of its communist government in the early 1990s, Albania has transformed into a steadfast ally of the United States and the West, officially joining NATO in 2009. As a NATO member which enjoys the US’s sponsorship, Albania has accepted the US’s request to host the MEK’s formerly designated terrorists in its territory since 2013.

Iran and Albania turned into bitter foes, since the Balkan state received the MEK on its soil. Iran rejected the accusation it was behind the cyberattack as “baseless” and called Albania’s decision to sever diplomatic ties “an ill-considered and shortsighted action.”

As one of the target countries of cyberattacks on its critical infrastructure, Iran condemns the MEK and its allies, US and Israel for several cyber attacks on its infrastructures. For several years, Iran and the other three have been involved in a largely clandestine cyberwar that occasionally comes to the surface.

The Iranian government systems have been targeted by cyberattacks, most notably in 2010 when the Stuxnet virus —engineered by Israel and the US — infected its nuclear program. In June, this year, Iranian state media said that the internal computer system of the municipality of Tehran was targeted in a “deliberate” shutdown in a cyber-attack. In October, a cyber-attack brought all fuel distribution stations in the country to a halt, resulting in long lines at petrol stations. An Iranian official said Israel and the United States were likely to have been behind the fuel service cyber-attack.

However, the MEK-Israel alliance has not been restricted to cyber warfare. The group is believed to be the operative arm of the Israeli intelligence, Mossad. In November 2012, NBC News reported that deadly attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists were being carried out by the MEK. The report cited two American officials that the group was financed, trained and armed by Israel’s secret service.

Deadly attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists were being carried out by the MEK under the order of Israel

The Mossad’s actions in using MEK to kill the Iranian nuclear scientists qualify as terrorism. Referring to the MEK_US_ Israel alliance, in February 2012, before the MEK was delisted from the DOS’s list of foreign terrorist organizations, Glenn Greenwald, the US prominent journalist stated that the MEK which is “basically little more than a nomadic cult” and “widely loathed in Iran” can pay top American politicians to advocate for them even as they engage in violent Terrorist acts, all while being trained, funded and aided by America’s top client states. Daniel Larison of the American Conservative also put at the time that the murders of Iranian nuclear scientists with bombs have been committed by the MEK and so the US and Israel are by definition, state sponsors of Terrorism.

Today, the formerly terrorist designated People’s Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI/ MEK) are used as cyber terrorists sponsored by US, Israel and their subsidized partner Albania. The new alliance is focused on cyber warfare, what the MEK’s troll farm has expertise and experience in. The group’s financial support and data source of intelligence seems to be generously provided by the enemies of their enemy.

Mazda Parsi

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In 2013, when the group was relocated in Albania, it started building its headquarters in Manez, North of Tirana. The group leaders built equipped halls with hundreds of computer systems connected to the Internet in order to launch fake news. In April, 2021, Facebook removed hundreds of fake accounts linked to the MEK’s “troll farm” in Albania. According to the Associated Press, “the accounts posted content critical of Iran’s government and supportive of Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, a dissident group known as MEK. In many cases, the Facebook and Instagram accounts used fake profile names and photos.”

MEK members working in the ‘Twitter troll factory’ in Manez Camp, Albania

However, the computer halls of the MEK’s troll farm are potential places to motivate members to defect the group regarding that members of the MEK are not allowed to have any access to the outside world. Mostafa Beheshti a recently defected member of the group speaks of the amplified monitoring on busy work days, like these days that protests go on in the streets of Iran and MEK agents are more active to launch misinformation about the actual protests high jacking the true demand of Iranian protesters.

“Large screens are hung on the wall of each computer hall,” Mostafa Beheshti told in interview with the Association for the Support of Iranian Living in Albania (ASILA). “The screens are connected to each persons’ computer. Commanders in the command room, security room and the room of top command of security of Camp Ashraf are able to monitor each member’s activities on his or her PC.”

Mostafa Beheshti in an interview with ASILA head

According to the testimonies of Mostafa, whenever there is an increase in the protests in Iran, security check and monitoring over members are eventually increased. “They are afraid that members use an opportunity and contact their families outside the camp. They are also afraid of any penetration in their group. They do not want any one from the outside world to know about their internal affairs.” However, there are always dissidents in the group who use various tricks to bypass the commanders’ monitoring system. cellphones do not have SIM cards
“At the time of protests, when connections rise, commanders confiscate members’ tablets or cellphones although their cellphones do not have any SIM cards,” Mostafa recounts. He states that the MEK’s rank and file are not allowed to use smartphones. He witnessed that the group supervisors would destroy the SIM card tray to prevent members from using it.

“The MEK leaders are obsessed with power in Iran but they are never representative of Iranians’ aspirations,” he told.

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For all the accusations of disinformation and fake news from both sides, it is rare that we can point to facts, a location, and actual personnel explaining the modus operandi of an organized troll factory.
Former MEK members still stranded in the Albanian capital, Tirana, having left the group, described how the MEK uses thousands of fake Twitter accounts to both promote their organisation and to boost online calls for regime change.

“Our orders would tell us the hashtags to use in our tweets in order to make them more active,” says Hassan Shahbaz, former MEK member. “It was our job to provide coverage of these protests by seeking out, tweeting and re-tweeting videos while adding our own comments.”
MEK keyboard warriors would also target journalists, academics and activists who favour dialogue rather than confrontation with Iran.

To download the video file click here

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Based on numerous records, MEK is considered a cult-like group. “The MEK’s cultic system means that decisions are imposed from the top down,” assert Masoud and Ann Khodabandeh, former members of the group. “This means that those decisions are only as intelligent as the leadership.” [1]
In July 2018, Saeed Kamali Dehghan of the Guardian published an article to discuss the support of US warmongers such as John Bolton for MEK, “the extreme Iranian opposition group who was the target of a foiled bombing attack in France and was once a sworn enemy of the United States”. Reviewing the history of MEK, Kamali Dehghan states, “Today, it functions as a fringe exiled group with characteristics of a cult that works for regime change in Iran, though it has little visible support inside the country. It portrays itself as a democratic political institution although its own internal structure is anything but.” [2]

In 2019 when some photos were leaked from inside Camp Ashraf 3 showing members sitting in front of monitors in the group’s troll farm, the Khodabandehs wrote, “What Rajavi doesn’t understand is that these photos show beyond any words that the MEK doesn’t share our values. The leader is selling unthinking, unquestioning, obedient slaves, people who won’t act or speak unless ordered to do so. And that would only be ordered if it were productive for the MEK, regardless of the needs or desires of the worker.” [3]

Leaked photos showing MEK members at work

“What these images portray are conditions of modern slavery,” they continued. “These are elderly people who are unable to escape this cult and are coerced into performing work for which they receive no recompense. They exist on cruelly basic accommodation and sustenance, whereby even asking for new underwear puts the petitioner under question about their loyalty to the leader and the cause. They cannot leave because in Albania they have nowhere to go, no identity documents or work permits, no money, and they do not speak the local language.” [4]

To Download the video file click here

In March 2020, Murtaza Hussein and Mathew Cole of the Intercept, also suggested, “the MEK is a highly secretive organization”. They had interviewed five defectors of the group to support their assertion. “Five of them agreed to speak on the record about their experiences, which were broadly consistent and often confirmed aspects of other former members’ accounts,” they wrote. “Secret Iranian intelligence documents obtained by The Intercept also confirm several of their claims, including information that is not publicly known. Their testimonies reveal a brutal organization that, for decades, has held thousands in a state of physical and psychological slavery as it degenerated from a popular political movement to a freakish cult of personality under the absolute control of one all-powerful leader.” [5]

Thus, the so-called celebration that was recently hold in Camp Ashraf and other similar ones, are actually a demonstration of the modern slavery that is practiced inside the Cult of Rajavi every day.

By Mazda Parsi

References:
[1] Khodabandeh, Ann & Massoud, Nobody Can Be “Comfortable” with Regime Change Involving MEK, The lobelog, August 22, 2019.
[2] Kamali Dehghan, Saeed, Who is the Iranian group targeted by bombers and beloved of Trump allies?, The Gurdian, July 2nd, 2018.
[3] Khodabandeh, Ann & Massoud, Nobody Can Be “Comfortable” with Regime Change Involving MEK, The lobelog, August 22, 2019.
[4] ibid
[5] Hussein, Murtaza & Cole, Mathew, Defectors Tell of Torture and Forced Sterilization in Militant Iranian Cult, The Intercept, March 22nd, 2020.

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The secondary goal of the project, which is still important to the leaders of the group, is to induce the potential supporters inside Iran in order to maintain current members inside the group’s camps in Europe – who have been asking to leave the group for the past decades.
However, experience and history have proven that the lack of a social base of Mujahedin Khalq in Iran has always been an obstacle to the success of the group in producing serious protests in Iran. One of the unsuccessful projects is the establishment of the very resistance units.

The fraudulent tactics to establish resistance units received a blow with a wave of revelations on the fraud of MEK, and with the infiltration in resistance units, a significant drop took place in the number of the so-called units.
Henceforth, nowadays, MEK is trying to create an opportunity to rebuild the plan with changes in recruitments, including the areas to recruit targets. MEK commanders have planned to target certain demographic settings that are more likely to succeed. Failed attempts to recruit members for resistance units have led MEK leaders to look for operatives in more specific clusters of the Iranian society.

Schools and work places are among the targeted clusters for MEK to create and launch protest movements. According to the group leaders, these environments create better opportunities to mobilize chaos. For example, in schools, the influence of peers and incomplete awareness about political issues helps MEK agents to deceive their targets with less difficulty. It seems that social activists, teachers and parents must be vigilant about the threat of the destructive cult of Rajavi in the social networks.

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By providing information about that specific matter, they try to show themselves as a member of the very group and then they play the role of a leading protester. In case of any physical protest, there are always some deceived individuals paid or manipulated by the MEK trolls who take part as an enthusiastic protester.

This is not a new tactic for MEK, in the early years after the 1979 revolution in Iran, MEK activists used to work hard to influence students and workers. Each of these people was tasked with missionary roles as the leader of a protest and ultimately led the group to the streets, strikes, and clashes.

It is worth to note that after the onset of MEK’s terror acts in the 1980s, these same individuals were armed with weapons. They killed a large number of students, workers and normal citizens in the streets. In fact, the assassinations were kind of revenge against the lack of public’s company for MEK agents.

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Facebook said it removed such accounts based on how they behave, not on the material they post. In some cases, the fake accounts used photos of Iranian celebrities or deceased dissidents. A small number of the more recent Instagram accounts appear to have used profile pictures that were computer generated.
Fake accounts run by trolls in the MEK farm –Camp Ashraf 3- in Albania, also proceed to ‎provoke celebrities, famous artists and athletic figures to promote their agenda which is creating chaos and division in Iran.‎ Although Facebook has removed some of their accounts, they keep on working in the social media unintrupptedly. Everyday, they build up new accounts and run new anti-Iran agenda ordered by the leaders.

Leaked photos showing MEK members at work

The MEK trolls, using the freedom of speech in the social media and tolerance of celebrities, write comments below their posts regarding the content the person has posted. They use intimidation bullying other users. In order to launch their clamorous criticism against the Iranian government they resort to fabrications and fake news.
This brings up the issue of “Media literacy” which is essentially originated from critical thinking. Media literacy is the ability to identify different types of media and the messages they are sending. When we speak of media, it encompasses print media, such as newspapers, magazines and posters, and theatrical presentations, tweets, radio broadcasts, etc.

Media literacy is not taught but is voluntary, then it is purely self-selecting and also unlikely to solve the issue. Those interested in learning about and detecting misinformation are probably those who are already least likely to be fooled by it.
Therefore, users in the social media, particularly prominent figures in arts, cinema and sports must be more media literate in order to deal with fake accounts who run fake news. All over the world, concerns over fake news have triggered a renewed interest in various forms of media literacy. Media literacy help audiences to be immunized against any harmful effects of misleading information.

By Mazda Parsi

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The new order from MEK leaders to increase the focus on telephone intelligence gathering from reporters and journalists was issued after photos and news were leaked from inside the group headquarters in Albania. The group’s leaders appear to be seeking sources of this disseminate news and images within themselves.

Therefore, the TET unit of Camp Ashraf, tasked with telephone intelligence gathering, is tasked with finding phone numbers of news outlets media activists and their relatives calling them in order to collect information, a regular basis. Calls from the MEK agents in Europe, in particular from Albania, focus mainly on media reporters who publish news material on the MEK camps in Albania.

The MEK agents use a new hardware that make these calls include Iran numbers on reporters ‘phone screens to avoid journalists’ suspicions about the calls as much as possible. However, such telephone numbers do not exist in Iran’s mobile operator networks.

The MEK agents call under the cover of a government official or an affiliate of a government agency and express gratitude for the inserted content about the MEK in Albania! Asserting that more information is needed, they try to find sources of the news and information.

Although most of the MEK’s efforts to discredit the information have been unsuccessful, it has increased the need for journalists to be vigilant and well-informed about the methods of telephone intelligence gathering.

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