Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

++ There was, as could be expected, a lot of Farsi activity on the internet this week. Much of this was shouting back at Rajavi and her misuse of the people’s demonstrations in Iran. The Twitter hashtags #shutuprajavi (along with #shutupTrump) and in Farsi ‘rajavikhafesho’ are still active in Farsi and English, inside and outside Iran.

++ Four times, the MEK has issued messages purported to be from Massoud Rajavi. Everyone is laughing, saying: ‘He’s dead! You can’t even produce his voice anymore. He is a ‘Dead man Talking’.’

++ This week some Israeli Zionist and American Neocon media outlets published pieces saying, ‘the way forward is to arm demonstrators in Iran’. This has become a laughing stock as well – ‘as though they don’t do this already!’ Massoud Khodabandeh commented “demonstrators demonstrate – the ones who beg for US arms are ISIS and MEK”.

In English:

++ Massoud Khodabandeh posted a comment on Facebook about the MEK waving the Iranian flag from the time of the Shah at pickets outside the White House:

“MEK (Rajavi) assassinated Americans to change the flag of Iran –

Now they are waving the same flag asking Americans to bring it back”

++ Among the storm of media coverage of the Iran protests there are several which describe the MEK (and Monarchists and Green Movement) for their readers. The common themes are: ‘the MEK is deeply unpopular in Iran, the MEK is a cult-like group, the MEK is backed by regime change pundits, the MEK is paid by Saudi Arabia, the MEK killed Americans/Iranians/Iraqis and collaborated with Saddam Hussein. Perhaps the most pertinent comment comes from Newsweek: “It also remains the perpetual boogey man of the regime”. Sott Net let us know that (IRGC) “Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari also reported that ‘a large number of the arrested trouble-makers at the center of the sedition had received training from counter-revolutionaries and the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization’”. The Peninsular wrote “To be sure, the White House backing the MEK would embolden the Iranian regime’s narrative that the unrest in the country’s major cities is orchestrated by Tehran’s ‘enemies’ including the MEK, as well as the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia.”

India’s APN also waded into the media waves with “Iran’s top leadership believes that the recent violent protests in Iran were the result of the coordinated efforts of a ‘triangle’ having US-Israel at one side, Saudi Arabia and Mujahideen-e-Khalq Organisation (MKO), the designated terror group holding the other two sides.”

++ Criticism of the ‘regime change agenda’ was also rife in reporting and analysing the protests in Iran. Ceylon Times concluded “The news lately has revealed that the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia are openly funding, supporting, arming, training and providing logistical support to Jundullah and MEK in order to take down the current sovereign government of Iran.

“Even though the USA, Saudi Arabia and Israel may not like the current government there, what right do they have to engage in this type of state sponsored terrorist behaviour?”

++ In a very informative piece, The Corbett Report unpicks the “past, present and future of US and Israeli involvement in Iran, and the attempts to foment unrest in the country” – including involvement of the MEK. It concludes: “No, this is not about the plight of the poor Iranian people. This is about achieving a key American/Israeli/Saudi geopolitical objective.

“As the dust settles on this wave of protests, it is most likely that the Iranian government will not be toppled. The opposition is unorganized, unarmed, and not drawing the masses of crowds that we have seen in previous ‘color revolutions’. But this is an ominous sign of things to come as the recent American/Israeli agreement on Iran comes to light.

“The only question is whether the people of the world are going to fall for yet another regime change operation.”

++ On the issue of fake news and misinformation, Adam Johnson of Fair.org gives a good analysis of how “insulting and sloppy” major media outlets have used “pictures of demonstrations in the United States, France, or United Kingdom—organized by a fringe, cult-like group, Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK)—in place of images of the entirely unaffiliated protesters, 6,000 miles away, who are the topic of discussion”. He states, “The only major media faction that even pretends the MEK has any legitimacy within Iran is the Murdoch group, which routinely runs MEK’s blatant disinformation (Fox News, 1/1/18) and pro-regime change op-eds (Wall Street Journal, 1/8/18)”. Before concluding “No intellectually honest person takes MEK seriously as a viable alternative to the current government in Iran. The idea that it is an actual ‘Iranian opposition’ is a Western media fiction. But the group’s rallies outside Iranian embassies provide great visual fodder for indifferent or dishonest editors in need of high-quality ‘Iran protest’ images—without the mess of actually paying Iranian photographers, or dissecting the on-the-ground political reality in Iran.”

++ Mazda Parsi in Nejat Bloggers says that the MEK were so active in promoting their propaganda during the Iran protests that “one may think that the protests were originally instigated by them but actually they acted as the proxy forces of Iran enemies surfing on the waves of Iranians’ inspirations for justice and economic welfare”. Quoting MoonofAlbama, the article asserts “These people are deeply hated in Iran but feared they are not”, before reminding us that President Rouhani asked the government of President Macron to stop hosting the MEK in France.

++ In Albania, news that Maryam Rajavi has imprisoned MEK members in a closed camp outside Tirana in a state of modern slavery prompted an article by Anne Khodabandeh, published by Balkans Post. Khodabandeh points out that a MEK training camp in Albania impacts the whole Balkan region by making Albania a frontline country in Iran’s fight against terrorism.

“At the same time, no wonder that the European Union regards Albania not as a friendly neighbour but as a security risk right on its doorstep. There is no chance whatsoever of Albania joining the European Union while it hosts the MEK terrorist group.

“The Gordian Knot of Balkan states which neither the Americans, Russians nor the EU have been able to unpick would be best served if these countries found common cause in ridding this sensitive area of the one group which serves none of their interests. Nobody wants it cut by an Iranian sword.”

++ Sahar Family Foundation, Albania, published corrections to some of the MEK’s lies in an article published by Albanian website shqiptarja.com. Most importantly that there are no ‘families’ inside the MEK. Maryam Rajavi oversees compulsory celibacy and gender apartheid while no MEK member is allowed to contact their family unless to try to deceptively recruit them or get money from them.

 January 12, 2018

++ Many commentators say they have observed that the MEK is fully under the thumb of Saudi Arabia – not Israel or America. They ask, ‘why are you in Tirana and not in Riyadh?’ Others have pointed out that the MEK and Saudi intel services have openly joined together to run Al Arabiya media outlet. The MEK features in it all the time. ‘It’s just like in the time of Saddam’, say critics.

++ In Albania ex-members are under serious pressure to work on social media, create accounts, liking and promoting posts, and creating memes and fake images. These people are becoming run down and ill while at the same time the MEK is cutting their allowances and punishing and threatening them.

In English:

++ A two-part interview with Anne Khodabandeh during a fact-finding mission in Albania last Autumn was published by Sputnik in Serbia. Iran-interlink published a ‘Google translate’ in English.

++ Sahar Family Foundation reported on conditions in Albania. MEK leaders have given an ultimatum to ex-members based on their financial dependence on the cult. “When the individuals approached the MEK to receive their allowances, they found out that from the beginning of the year 2018, it would be reduced to two thirds of the actual amount. To get even this reduced money they now had to sign a document admitting that they owe this money to the cult and that they will repay their debt once they get money in future… “The Rajavi cult is imposing this pressure on the former members in order to force them to either go back to the organization or leave Albania. They are told that they would have much better opportunities in neighboring countries. The aim of the cult is to send them out of Albania where they act as role models for other discontented members who wish to gain their freedom.”

++ An article by Philip Giraldi in Global Research asked a pertinent question considering the events which ensued in Iran: ‘Who Are the Leading State Sponsors of Terrorism?’ Giraldi says, “A recent detailed analysis by former US intelligence officers has demonstrated just how the claim that Iran is the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism is almost completely fabricated. The analysis explains how these false narratives are contrived and how they become part of the Washington background noise…

“The reality is that terrorism, defined by the United Nations as ‘criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public,’ is most employed at the state level by the United States and its allies Israel and Saudi Arabia, not by Iran.”

++ Tehran Times reported foreign interference in the widespread protests inside Iran. “Sources close to security bodies have said of over 500 people arrested during the disturbances in different cities in Iran, more than 80 percent have admitted receiving money and ordered from outside the country to misuse the people’s protest against price rises and high unemployment.” The paper also said, “Maryam Rajavi, the MKO terrorist leader, has urged more violence and chaos in a twitter message.”

++ Borzou Daragahi, Middle East correspondent for BuzzFeed News, based in Istanbul wrote an analytical article saying ‘Iran’s Rouhani Acknowledges Right To Protest, But Blasts Trump For Encouraging It’. Daragahi describes the nature of the protests as they moved from peaceful to violent, the demographic of participants and how the country’s leaders and security authorities responded. He also noted that there was evidence of MEK involvement in the organisation of protests. In addition, Mehr News Agency “issued an ominous warning that Sunni jihadis were rumored to be preparing violence against demonstrators in what many Iranians considered a pretext for violent attacks on protests”.

++ TeleSur wrote in Iranian.com ‘Russia Warns Against Foreign Meddling In Iran As Separatism, Extremism Voiced In Unrest’. The MEK was mentioned as “anti-government extremists that are unpopular within the country”.

++ The Daily Mail (UK) reported that since a visit by French President Macron was cancelled due to unrest in Iran, President Rouhani spoke with him by telephone instead. In the conversation, Rouhani demanded “action against a ‘terrorist’ Iranian opposition group he accused of fomenting recent protests.

“’We criticise the fact that a terrorist group has a base in France and acts against the Iranian people… and we await action from the French government against this terrorist group,’ Rouhani told Macron, according to a report on Iranian state television.

“He was referring to an exiled Iranian opposition group based in Paris and called the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq. Iranian authorities accuse the group, which the regime describes as ‘hypocrites’, of fuelling the unrest rocking the Islamic republic and of links with regional Sunni rival Saudi Arabia.”

++ Tasnim News, Tehran, “Many rioters arrested in the recent unrest in Iran have been trained by the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), the IRGC commander Major Genera Ali Jafari said, adding that enemies have even dispatched a number of Daesh (ISIL) terrorists to Iran for acts of sabotage.”

++ After six days of protests in Iran, Moon of Alabama published a critique of western reporting of these events. According to this report, fake pictures and false ‘evidence’ is produced to show violence: “The terrorist group MEK (NCRI, MKO) ‘leaked’ fake protocols of an alleged government meeting which it claims shows panic over the protests. Allegedly the government fears the leader of the MEK, Maryam Rajavi. The MEK has paid large sums to get support from politicians, including John McCain in Washington and elsewhere. During the Iraq-Iran war it fought against Iran on the side of Iraq. After the U.S. invaded Iraq the MEK was held in special camps under U.S. control. According to a 2012 Seymour Hersh report the U.S. military trained MEK fighters in the U.S. in sabotage and insurgency technics. These people are deeply hated in Iran but feared they are not. Their early engagement in the ‘protests’ via their website and propaganda ops in Iran may point to deeper role in the riots.”

++ Executive Intelligence Review issued a Press Release stating that ‘Saudis Back Terrorist MeK as ‘Alternative’ in Iran’. Al Arabiya is quoted supporting Maryam Rajavi and the MEK.

++ Fax Web, Tirana, Albania – ‘Sputnik raises the alarm: Americans prepare assassins in Albania to attack Iran’. “The CIA is preparing killers in Albania to attack and fight with the Iranian regime. The editorial is… for Radio Sputnik in Serbian, which is broadcast on the internet as well as on normal radio waves. In the interview given to journalists, political analyst Aleksandar Pavic has made some strong allegations… Trump, along with Israel, has a clear plan and this is being activated today by Albania. The CIA and Israeli services are preparing soldiers to send them to war in Iran to overthrow the regime but that will be impossible, says Pavic.”

++ Olsi Jazexhi, Albanian academic and historian, spoke with Fax Web about MEK involvement in the protests in Iran. He said that “Many of the protesters, people associated with the Mojahedin Khalq (MEK, MKO) who are based in Albania, have used violence in the past, killing hundreds of workers or ordinary citizens.” Jazexhi also “emphasized the fact that the protests started for economic reasons, but were later manipulated by being converted into political protests. ‘Foreign-controlled protesters manipulated the protests by turning them into violent protests. The problem is that the governments in the US and Israel were able to take advantage of these protests. Today, there were protests against the government, announcing the end of violence against the institutions’.”

January 05, 2018

++ There were several reminders about the MEK’s Farsi language letter last week to President Abbas’s foreign relations advisor. Commentators point out that whether they gave permission or not, the Israeli lobby in London and Washington has lost the plot by continuing to support these mercenaries. The MEK think nobody will see what they are up to if they write only in Farsi. But clearly, they were forced to take this anti-Israeli, anti-American stance for internal purposes – with or without permission.

++ In Albania, news has emerged that the MEK is forcing members to undertake building work in Ashraf Three camp which they have got from the Americans. There has been resistance. The members complain that Maryam Rajavi pays huge amounts for lobbyists and for beauty treatments and yet demands that people in their fifties and sixties must do hard labour for free. This news also reveals that some members have been beaten and that the MEK has closed the camp doors as they did under CIA protection in Iraq. The government of Albania and its law enforcement services are treating Ashraf Three as a CIA camp over which they have no jurisdiction. The police cannot enter. As with other CIA bases in Albania there is no registration for tax or labour laws. They are considered as outside the law of the land.

++ Some of those who refused to go to Ashraf Three are considered as ‘ex-members’ but are having their basic needs met by the MEK and are also receiving payments on condition that they do not talk. They are instructed what to do by MEK commanders. Their job is to go on social media and click likes etc. But this week they have been given a list of names and told that every one of them must write against everyone who does not work for the MEK and who, indeed, speak out against the MEK. They must write, sign and put their fingerprint on the document. The ex-members have refused saying ‘we are being paid for not talking, but if we do this you will not pay us because we are talking about the MEK’.

In English:

++ A Huffington Post article by Kourosh Ziabari asks ‘Why has France become a safe haven for extremism in Europe?’ Ziabari says that groups like ISIS have grown in part because of “the faults, shortcomings, and negligent decision-making of many actors”. He identifies French secularism as a reason why religious extremism is overlooked and groups like the “militant cult in exile’, MEK have been enabled to operate with impunity in France. “The French system doesn’t seem to have frameworks that enable harsh and unconditional crackdown on extremists… When France wields its state secularism in such a way that faith minorities feel regularly excluded and snubbed, it’s no surprise that extremist cults like the Islamic State feel empowered.”

++ Mazda Parsi of Nejat Bloggers examines the events which led to an MEK former and a former British MP being beaten with sticks and fists just outside the doors of the European Parliament by the thugs of Maryam Rajavi. “This indicates how shamelessly the agents of the MKO traffic in the EU parliament spreading violence despite all democratic gestures they take in their lobbies. Eldar Mamedov explains the technics the MKO operatives use to manipulate members of the EU Parliament. Mamedov is a political adviser for the social-democrats in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (EP) and is in charge of the delegation for inter-parliamentary relations between the EP and Iran.

‘On the operational level, the MEK is extremely persistent and aggressive,’ he writes. ‘MEK lobbyists maintain a constant presence in the coffee bars of EP buildings in Brussels and Strasbourg, or in front of the plenary room in Strasbourg. These are strategic locations from which to bombard MEPs and their staffers with requests to support the MEK.’

‘Sometimes, however, they overdo it – one MEP recounted to me about how she had to scream at an MEK activist until they exited the elevator she was using to get to her office,’ Mamedov states. ‘Even MEPs’ offices are targets: the MEK lobbyists have no qualms about entering them uninvited and distributing flyers against alleged “Islamo-fascist tyranny” in Tehran.’

The authorities of the European parliament should be wise to be wary about associating with any person or group that attempts to minimize the violent acts of a group so murderous and fanatical that even might endanger the health of the MEPs.”

++ Consortium News website ran a piece titled ‘Intel Vets Tell Trump Iran Is Not Top Terror Sponsor’. The Memorandum to the President from Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity examines both Iran and Saudi Arabia in terms of support for terrorism, citing American support for the MEK in spite of its history of killing Americans. While “Thirteen of the 14 Muslim Groups identified by the U.S. intelligence community as actively hostile to the US are Sunni, not Shia, and are not supported by Iran…” The Memorandum to the President concludes “You have presented yourself as someone willing to speak hard truths in the face of establishment pressure and not to accept the status quo. You spoke out during the campaign against the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq as a historic mistake of epic proportions. You also correctly captured the mood of many Americans fatigued from constant war in far- away lands. Yet the torrent of warnings from Washington about the dangers supposedly posed by Iran and the need to confront them are being widely perceived as steps toward reversing your pledge not to get embroiled in new wars.

We encourage you to reflect on the warning we raised with President George W. Bush almost 15 years ago, at a similar historic juncture:

‘after watching Secretary Powell today, we are convinced that you would be well served if you widened the discussion … beyond the circle of those advisers clearly bent on a war for which we see no compelling reason and from which we believe the unintended consequences are likely to be catastrophic.’”

++ Nejat Bloggers, Mazda Parsi wrote a short, punchy piece exposing the ‘Filthy Rule to Keep Members in The Cult of Rajavi – Keep all communication channels closed. “You usually can’t just rescue someone from a cult. The point is that once someone is in a cult, it is very difficult for him/her to leave. This is why it is considered a cult. Therefore, the Mujahedin Khalq Organization perfectly falls in to the category of being a cult.

Also by definition, the cult member doesn’t believe that he or she is in a cult. Instead, members have been brainwashed by believing that they have achieved a high status just by having the opportunity to be in the cult which ultimately brings them salvation, for instance members of the Cult of Rajavi are called “unique gems” (Goharan Bibadil). This status is the result of a manipulative system that prevents victims from thinking freely.

What most people don’t know is that mind control can be even more powerful than a gun to the head because the victim believes that the person doing the manipulation is actually a friend, or a lover, or a master, who seems to be caring and honest…”

December 29, 2017

++ Former MEK in Albania who still have contact with current members report that the announcement by President Trump concerning the US embassy and Jerusalem caused a wave of doubt and anger among members at every level of the MEK. They (who still believe the MEK follows an anti-Imperialist ideology) asked ‘Why does the MEK not take a position on this issue which is close to our hearts?’ (Prior to the 1979 Revolution, the MEK trained with the PLO in Jordan.) They pointed out that even Saudi Arabia, MEK paymasters, have condemned Trump’s announcement. In response, a letter has been written in Farsi (not Arabic or English) and signed by MEK veteran Mohammad Mohaddessin as the ‘NCRI foreign minister’ addressed to Azzam al-Ahmad, advisor to President Mahmoud Abbas. The letter offers grovelling support for Palestinians, saying ‘we believe Trump is wrong and we believe Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine’. The reaction in Albania, however, is that the fact this letter is only in Farsi and published only in the MEK’s newspaper (read by the MEK in Albania) most certainly means that it was never sent and is for ‘internal consumption only.

In English:

++ Massoud Khodabandeh wrote a short opinion piece in Huffington Post saying that the European Union has claimed the moral high ground in relations with Iran, replacing America as the lead negotiating partner. The EU leads on human rights advocacy (the US, Russia and China have the death penalty), honest negotiating stance and tackling issues like terrorism, says Khodabandeh. MEP Ana Gomes, the article reports, called for the MEK to be banned from the EU parliament as a security risk and as a signal that the EU has distanced itself from terrorism in all its forms.

++ Iran’s Mehr News reports that Ali Akbar Velayati (aide to the Supreme Leader on International Affairs) has denounced France for “acting as the naïve followers of the US” and says it must act differently in order to save its international reputation. “France, from the beginning of the Islamic Revolution till today, has shown very little honesty,” he said touching upon the French government permitting MKO members to convene in France.

++ A short Diary piece in the London Evening Standard revealed that a former Labour MP and writer had come to the rescue of Mehdi Khoshal on 6th December when MEK thugs began to beat him and his friends just outside the parliament entrance. But when Denis MacShane intervened he too was attacked by Maryam Rajavi’s thugs. (She was inside the building at the time, these were apparently her security agents.) “Outside European Parliament thugs from People’s Mujahedin of Iran violently attacking elderly man, hitting with sticks, kicks etc,” he tweeted yesterday. “I told them to stop it, so they started attacking me with sticks, fists etc. And we weren’t even discussing Brexit!” Back in London, “MacShane is carrying on with his daily business, even if he was a little surprised that his pompous wading had little effect on the outcome. ‘At least I gave the first victim a chance to run away,’ he said. ‘Don’t think I have been attacked by Mujahedin before!’”

++ Nejat Bloggers has translated parts of a piece written by newly escaped MEK member Manuchehr Abdi in Albania. He explains what the MEK call ‘Ablution in the Moment’. Abdi says MEK are never allowed outside their bases in Albania alone. They are guarded and monitored at all times by a minder, the unit leader. “Beside this we were stopped every 50 meters and forced to describe our feelings about seeing the environment, people and everything else which might deviate our mind from the group objectives. These brainwashing sessions which are held in the streets are called “ablution in the moment”.

++ As a writer and poet, Mehdi Khoshal took a moment to write a thank-you note to the former Labour MP Denis MacShane who had also taken a beating after trying to stop a vicious attack by MEK thugs outside the EU parliament. He urges MacShane to “separate the experience of encountering the Mojahedin Khalq (Rajavi cult) with the normal behaviour of Iranian people who are certainly a peace-loving nation.”

December 22, 2017

++The MEK began a mass re-location of its members from their residences in an old university campus in Tirana to a new camp far away from the capital. The new camp is still under construction but already has a wall around it to separate the people inside from the outside world. MEK members have been asked again to sign oaths to say they will not leave the group until their struggle is over. Sahar Family Foundation advised on its website that this would be the last chance for people to run away since not even the Albanian police are able to get into the new camp and the government has no jurisdiction there. Conditions in the new camp will be the same as in Camp Ashraf in Iraq. Essentially it is a place to go and die.

++ Bahman Azami and Sadollah Seyfi wrote about their memories this week. In particular they described how they felt when they wanted to run away. They were very afraid because the MEK had told them so many lies about the outside world that they believed the people outside would kill them. But even that was preferable to remaining with the MEK. Adel Azami also wrote a two-part report about his trip to Tirana. It is titled ‘Me, Bahman and Sadollah from Kurdistan to Diyala to Tirana’. He talks about their childhood friendship and the sufferings they each endured in the MEK and how they are now happy to be together again.

++ Faramarz Dadras, a well-known and respected political and intelligence commentator, had an hour-long interview with Radio Voice of Iran. Dadras talks in detail using behind the scenes facts and information about how the MEK came into existence forty years ago and what subsequently happened in Iraq. He explains what different parts of the world wanted from the MEK and how the group has been used and exploited. He divides these into categories – MEK leaders, political advocates, experts – all working for different aims. But all used them as gladiators. He also talks about what went on inside the MEK – the compulsory divorces, separation of the children and etc. He talks about the relocation agreement between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Albania and how the country couldn’t say no because it’s the poorest place on the European continent. The MEK were moved there by the Americans to be de-sensitised [de-radicalised], although this hasn’t been done. But, according to Dadras, the MEK has reached the end of the line. There is no more use for them and they have now become a burden. The members will either have to separate from the group or remain and die. Whichever way, little by little the MEK will go away.

In English:

++ Mazda Parsi for Nejat Bloggers writes that in reaction to the 38th anniversary of the U.S. Embassy takeover in Tehran the MEK is still trying to whitewash its history via a fabricated post on The Hill. Parsi points out that the claims of Ali Safavi can be easily refuted by “a very simple search in the accessible papers and documents of the group itself, as well as the international bodies and the worldwide media”. The article gives examples of media and government reporting on the MEK which clearly identifies the group’s culpability in various terrorist activities as well as its violent beliefs and abusive behaviour.

++ Sahar Family Foundation issued a warning in English aimed at those concerned about and responsible for the group that the MEK is relocating its members to a remote and isolated camp.

++ An article by Massoud Khodabandeh in Huffpost titled ‘Albania’s Modern Slavery Problem Alienates Europe’, says that political slavery like that practiced by the MEK is not hard to detect but presents many problems. For Albania in particular it has caused many in the European Union to regard the country as a security risk rather than a potential partner country.

++ Mazda Parsi writes an analytical piece looking into the relationship between Israel, America and the MEK. He says that since Israel has been able to persuade the Americans to support the MEK, there is no reason to suppose that Daesh is not a candidate for such befriending if it should suit Israeli policy.

++ The Tirana Today headline ‘Scandal! Albanian Mafia Helps Mojahedin Khalq Recruit Our Youth, Fears The EU’ brings the MEK problem to the public’s attention. The original article is in Albanian.

November 24, 2017

++ The MEK’s television channel has aired many programmes asking supporters for money. The adverts present various individuals who have already paid. The response among Farsi speakers is that ‘there is no need to go to this pretense, we all know you are doing money laundry’. For many years the MEK has pretended that its members and supporters are the source of its income. But it is public knowledge that the money is from Saudi Arabia and Israel. Even in the years 1995-6 when the UK Charity Commission investigated and closed the bogus Iran Aid charity, it was obvious to everyone that this was a money laundry front. Clearly, the MEK now has new money coming and these TV programmes are aired to disguise where it’s from.

++ Iran’s Day of Koroush (Cyrus the Great) came and went before the MEK suddenly realised they had missed the bandwagon. So, this week they tried to catch up. The Commentariat ridiculed them. Most pointed out ‘you were anti-monarchist when you started, now what’s all this about Koroush’? Some went on to say that ‘Koroush didn’t sell his country for pennies, didn’t lick his enemies’ boots and didn’t force his soldiers to divorce or use them as forced labour etc. In fact, he was symbol of human rights and tolerance. You are famous for abusing human rights’.

++ This week a group of MEK formers had a meeting in the European Parliament exposing the MEK. They acted as an echo for the voices of the people in Albania about the human rights abuses going on inside the MEK.

In English:

++ Anne Khodabandeh visited Tirana last week to investigate the scandalous situation of former MEK members in Albania. She had an opportunity to speak with some officials responsible for the MEK, though all were afraid to speak on the record. Khodabandeh was interviewed by several media outlets, television, internet and newspapers. Some had their output censored by senior editors and media owners. (Ironically, Johannes Hahn, Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations was in Tirana from 8 to 10 November to participate in the EU-Western Balkans Media Days – aimed at strengthening freedom of speech and media independence.)

++ Gazeta Impakt broadcast a two-part interview on the MEK in Albania. In the first, Anne Khodabandeh talked about a range of issues, including the illegal trafficking of the whole MEK to Albania. She said that since they do not have UN refugee status they have no legal status in the country. She also mentioned that there is already evidence of the MEK recruiting young people in Albania to join their cult. The second part involved the testimony of three former MEK members. Adel Azami, Bahram Azami (cousins) and Sadollah Seifi, who all come from the same village in Iranian Kurdistan and joined the MEK together twenty-six years ago. They each explained how they had been deceived by false propaganda by the MEK and spent all those years trapped in the organisation. Adel escaped five years ago and is now resident in the UK. The other two escaped the MEK only weeks ago and are now on the difficult road to recovery. Anne Khodabandeh was on hand to clarify certain issues and to say that anyone leaving the MEK would be supported by the families’ Sahar Family Foundation.

++ “Nejat Society members of Khuzestan branch met Sheikh Mansuri family. Their beloved son; Nesar was a POW of Iran-Iraq war when the MKO recruiters deceived him into joining the cult. He is taken hostage by the Cult of Rajavi now for long years.

I am sure my brother loves his family; says Ms. Samira Mansuri, Nesar’s sister. She recounted the story of their last visit to the MKO Camp Liberty in Iraq:

‘we were picketing in front of the Camp Liberty gates along with other families. All the families wrote and signed petitions to the UNHCR asking for a visit with our loved ones’. The UNHCR representative, however, quoting the MKO cult leaders, said that the members were unwilling to visit you. And we can do nothing…  We were all sure that the cult leaders do not tell the truth. And our beloved family members were under severe pressure and manipulation of the cult.’

Nesar regularly wrote letter to us when he was captive in the Baath prison Camps. However as soon as he transferred to the MKO Camps, the Rajavis didn’t allow him to write a letter or contact his family.”

++ Mazda Parsi of Nejat Bloggers writes to answer the question ‘What caused the decline of the cult of Rajavi?’ by explaining how cults work. He starts by explaining that people do not join cults but are deceptively recruited and often spend years trapped in the group afterwards. He says the process is gradual. “The leaders of the group Massoud and Maryam Rajavi ran very meticulous methods of brainwashing to indoctrinate their cult-like ideas. The more the group members endured cult-like practices, the more they lost their trust to the outside world.” Parsi tells why forced celibacy is used in the MEK. However, after 2003, the MEK’s hypocrisy became clear for the members and many began to escape the cult a process that is still ongoing. Parsi concludes: “Doubts about the group’s leaders and their ideology was enhanced when members found themselves in a rather free world in Tirana. They could see the normal life of ordinary normal citizens whenever they could manage to get out of the group’s camp –although under sever supervision and control of their superior ranks. Hence, they got informed of the aspects of violations of human rights that the leaders of the Cult of Rajavi committed against them. This instigated the second and hopefully last stage in the decline of the cult of Rajavi.”

++ Richard Silverstein in Tikun Olam mentions the MEK’s role in the Iran nuclear deal now that Donald Trump is trying to scupper the deal. (Trump and Iran Nuclear Deal: ‘On the Road to Nowhere’.)

“Many analysts believe that MeK’s mysterious largesse originated in the treasury of the Saudi regime, a sworn enemy of the Iran’s Shia regime.  NBC, quoting Obama administration sources, claimed the Mossad was an important funder as well.  Meir Dagan, Israel’s former Mossad chief, publicly boasted of Israeli acts of terrorism sponsored inside Iran.  Clearly, these sorts of operations need Iranian insiders and MeK is a likely culprit.  The same NBC report asserted that the MeK participated in the assassination of five Iranian nuclear scientists.  I reported here, based on a high-level Israeli former military officer, that the Mossad and MeK jointly coordinated the attacks.  Other journalists have reported that the Saudis gave Israel $1-billion for various operations to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program including the assassinations and the Stuxnet malware attack.

“It would be totally in character for the MeK to accept funding from Iran’s enemies, as it was once sheltered in Iraq by Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war.”

 November 10, 2017

++ Homeira Mohammad Nejad from the Women’s Association wrote an analytical article in which she explains that nowadays the MEK has abandoned celebration of everything except two events – 30th June (marking the self-immolations of 2004) and 20thOctober (the anniversary of Maryam Rajavi’s internal ‘election’ as president-elect of Iran). Everything else has been abandoned. There are two reasons. One is that people are already leaving in droves, so the group can’t afford to revive or to promote the idea of armed struggle for fear of alienating more. The group is now moving further toward lobbying rather than raising any hopes for active participation in regime change. The other reason is they are seriously afraid of the backlash of the Albanian people who don’t like them at all. The MEK has chosen these two events and done away with its logos and slogans and only promotes pictures of Maryam Rajavi in the hope people will forget who they really are and regard them as benign. This behaviour is obviously not of their choice. The MEK is instructed by its benefactors, such as the Saudis, what to do so that they will be paid.

++ Faramarz Dadras, a political analyst, has posted on his Facebook how sensitive the issue of Massoud Rajavi’s death is for the MEK. He says that apart from this being a product of its cult behaviour, there is credible information that a lot of money is involved and the MEK doesn’t want to announce his death because of this inheritance. His son and wife and wider family are squabbling over the money. This is most unfair, writes Dadras, because those who love him – the members – are not being given the chance to mourn him.

++ Sahar Family Foundation has been inundated by articles and commentary by former MEK members in Albania – with and without names. One of them to mention is titled ‘Tormenting Us with Our Bread’. The writer says that ex-members complain “our bread is in their hands and they are playing with us over that, offering it and withdrawing it with conditions”. The ex-members blame the Americans saying “we know that they know the MEK are doing this to us. They are holding us hostage, saying ‘do as you are told for your money, if you don’t you will not be allowed to eat or have a place to sleep’.”

++ In Iran, Habilian Association published a piece by Khosro Ghanbari Tehrani – famous among the founders of Iran’s Intelligence Agency after the Revolution. He has historically been involved in many areas but now teaches in university. His argument is called ‘The First Bent Brick’. He explains that the MEK was founded on warped principles and actions and therefore Rajavi was able to take advantage of that to build his own warped empire.

In English:

++ Mehr News and Press TV report the reaction of Iran’s Judiciary Chief, Ayatollah Sadegh Amoli Larijani, to renewed American sanctions. He says that after thirty years of such “threadbare and futile” actions, “US congress has turned into an automated machine of passing sanctions against Iran”. Larijani says he believes such actions against the Iranian nation results in greater unity and resistance against these pressures. He also dismissed the latest report by UN human rights rapporteur Asma Jahangir saying it reflects the views of Iran’s enemies, including the MEK.

++ Philip Giraldi writes ‘The Rise of MEK/NCRI in Washington: Pay Off The Right People and You Are No Longer A Terrorist’. The article in the American Herald Tribune describes how money has been used to whitewash the MEK’s history. He concludes, “The emergence of NCRI [aka MEK] at this time is just another fool’s game with the usual Washington crowd queuing up for a bad cause because they are both lining their pockets and thinking they are helping Israel by punishing Iran.  In any event it is a poor bargain for the rest of us, but that hardly seems to matter anymore.”

++ Nejat Society in Semnan, Iran held a meeting in which five MEK formers signed a petition to bring Massoud and Maryam Rajavi to justice and face a fair international court for their crimes against humanity. They asked the UNHCR and the Albanian government to facilitate visits for MEK members in Tirana by their families.

++ Yuram Abdullah Weiler writes in the American Herald Tribune that under Donald Trump, Iran is again being accused through the US media of covertly pursuing nuclear arms. “Fox News has announced that the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)… has once again managed to obtain ‘intelligence’ relating to a covert nuclear weapons program hidden skillfully from the peering eyes of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s inspectors.” Weiler exposes Alireza Jafarzadeh – a Fox News ‘consultant’ – as a long-term member of the terrorist MEK whose previous ‘revelations’ of Iran’s activities have been found to be fake.

 November 03, 2017

++ Last week the MEK were happily supporting Trump’s stance toward Iran and betting on war. ‘Trump will finish Iran off’ they proclaimed to their members and anyone else who would listen to them. This week, however, they suffered a setback. Farsi commentators have pointed out that not only has Trump not abandoned the agreement, the State Department now signalled that they want to support the democratic forces inside Iran. This means abandoning pursuit of violent regime change which in turn means no support for the MEK. Iran Didban website wrote that with this the MEK suddenly jumped twenty years backward and are now completely deflated. Their former backers can’t even use them as a bargaining chip. That no longer works for them.

++ Several people remind us it is the anniversary of Maryam Rajavi’s ‘election’ as President-elect. At that time Massoud Rajavi tried to copy the power structure in Iran. He attached the label ‘President’ to her so that he would be the equivalent of Iran’s Supreme Leader. Commentators say ‘now this reason does not exist anymore, this tactic is old is getting boring, she should introduce something new.’ Some directly address the remaining members of the NCRI, asking ‘don’t you think your Council should have a change of face?’

++ The news that Somayeh Mohammadi had left the MEK and gone to the Hotel came out because several formers had seen her there. The MEK issued a long document in her name swearing at everyone and claiming that ‘no, I have not come out’. Contrary to previous items in her name – pictures, video and voice – this is only in writing. However, this handwriting does not match what they previously put out in her name. Formers in Tirana say it is obvious she is not with them, but with the pressure that the MEK, backed by the CIA, puts on ex-members in Tirana, no wonder she is afraid and denies it. We know there is a very real threat of destitution and even death, they say.

In English:

++ The Tehran Times notes in its English language paper that “only Israel and Saudi Arabia, which have both been accused of committing war crimes, have welcomed Donald Trump’s decertification of the nuclear deal and his insulting language against Iran.” The article criticises these two countries before concluding: “However like himself, Trump’s inner circle are extremely biased and stupid. For example, the State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauret wrote a tweet on Oct. 15 surprisingly saying support by Israel and Saudi Arabia showed that ‘we are doing something right’.”

++ Nejat Society reported that former MEK member Mr Javad Firouzmand attended an EU Council Anti-Terrorism meeting.

++ An article in Iran Wire (translated by Nejat Society) titled ‘What three favors Rajavi asked Saddam to do for him’, is based on the admissions of Ghorbanali Hosseinnejad, former translator of Massoud Rajavi – leader of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization – who left the group five years ago. As Rajavi’s Arabic language translator, Hosseinnejad was privy to the MEK’s relations with Saddam Hussein and his inner circle. He reveals that in 2000, Rajavi asked Saddam for three favors: an increase in the oil share to fund the MEK, support from the Iraqi army for another military attack against Iran and an increase in the number of tanks Saddam supplied. “Saddam promised to undertake the third request in case of a military operation and in exchange, he asked the group to stop advertising in favor of Israel. However, the MKO authorities who were working to get the support of Israel and the US, didn’t bear out Saddam’s demand.”

++ Gareth Porter in The American Conservative, writes a revealing article ‘Trump Trashes Iran Deal to Satisfy Netanyahu’. Porter describes how Trump is formulating his policy toward Iran based on Likud Party demands. He names Netanyahu, Jared Kushner, Sheldon Adelson and John Bolton as the key influences on Trump in this respect. He says “it was Bolton who worked with Israeli officials to plan a campaign to convince the world that Iran was secretly working on nuclear weapons. His goal was to sell key European nations on a UN Security Council resolution accusing Iran of developing a nuclear program.” The plan which involved manufacturing damning documents, was abetted by the MEK. “In the summer of 2004, a large collection of documents allegedly from a covert Iranian nuclear weapons research program was suddenly obtained by Germany’s foreign intelligence agency. Those documents became the sole alleged evidence that such a program existed. But this writer found more than one telltale sign of fraud in the papers, and a former senior German foreign office official told me on the record in March 2013 that the source who passed on the documents was a member of the Mujihadeen e-Khalq (MEK), the armed Iranian opposition group. The MEK has allegedly worked with Israel’s Mossad for some time.”

October 27, 2017

++ Among the reactions to Maryam Rajavi’s support for Donald Trump’s speech, many referred to the MEK as mercenaries and claim ‘this, as other issues, will go away’. But many others remarked on what happened after the speech and that nothing came out of what Trump said. As we know, they say, this means that the Iranians don’t take them seriously. But even those who regard the MEK as a tool are distancing themselves from the group. The MEK is becoming more and more irrelevant, as much as they like to shout about themselves.

++ In Albania there is a constant stream of people leaving the MEK and they are consolidating around Sahar Family Foundation so that a community of formers is taking shape. On the other side, the MEK are digging in and establishing further connections with the underworld of Albania; drug smugglers, arms dealers, traffickers etc. New MEK bases are being established between Tirana and the port of Durrës for smuggling purposes, along with smuggling people and drugs from other routes. The MEK has established its presence in the country in this way and is now involved in the task of corrupting politicians.

In English:

++ In a blog which concludes, “The vast majority of terrorism that is shaking the world today is conceived and nutured [sic] by radical Sunnis bent on destroying Iran. That is a fact that is largely ignored in the United States” Colonel Pat Lang’s analysis of Donald Trump’s Iran policy encompasses the lies and misinformation which illustrate Trump’s delusion. Lang says, “Author Sean Naylor, Relentless Strike, which details the history of operations and missions carried out by U.S. Joint Special Operations Command aka JSOC over the last 30 years, sheds light on an uncomfortable truth regarding our support to terrorists. To quote an old cartoon, ‘We have met the enemy and he is us.’

“JSOC personnel also worked with the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK), a militant Iranian exile group that had based itself in Iraq after falling afoul of the ayatollahs’ regime in Tehran. The State Department had placed the MEK on its list of designated terrorist organizations, but that didn’t stop JSOC from taking an attitude of ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ toward the group. ‘They were a group of folks that could transit the border, and they were willing to help us out on what we wanted to do with Iran,’ said a special operations officer. The MEK were classified as a terrorist group until the United States decided that as long as the MEK would help kill Iranians rather than Americans that they were no longer terrorists.”

++ Jason Ditz’s post in Anti-War attacks President Trump’s “increasingly fantastical and absurd accounting of Iran’s history”, in his “long-anticipated anti-Iran speech”. Referring to Trump’s claims about Iran’s military and nuclear activity Ditz reminds us: “The IAEA has in recent days clarified multiple times that they don’t need or want to visit any military sites right now. The only allegations about the sites are from the Mujahedin-e Khalq, which has been the source of repeated false accusations in the past.”

++ A lawyer acting for former MEK members in Albania visited the office of the UNHCR in Tirana this week with one of them. They asked the UNHCR to clarify the status of individuals who have been left destitute after they separated from the MEK. The report of the meeting reveals that the MEK do not have refugee status and were brought on ‘humanitarian grounds’ under an agreement struck between America, the Albanian government and the MEK. Under this agreement, which has not been made public, the MEK is responsible for paying the upkeep of all its members and former members. The MEK however does not pay anyone who does not continue to obey its dictates. The UNHCR suggested that a court case could clarify the status of these dissidents.

++ Mazda Parsi of Nejat Society ridicules Maryam Rajavi’s dream of ruling the Iranian nation. While she insists “it is imperative that the NCRI be recognised as the sole democratic alternative” to Iran’s government, the people of Iran hold the opposite view of the JCPOA to that of Trump and Rajavi. Parsi compares Rajavi’s rule inside the MEK to that of the absolute monarchy of Saudi Arabia, pointing out that she “has been a president for over three decades with no alternative”.

++ Jason Rhode in Poste Magazine has no problem denouncing Howard Dean by examining “a pair of Dean’s positions: one in foreign policy, one domestic. Then we can examine why Dean has ended up on the short end of the progressive stick.” With regard to foreign policy, when Dean described Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist group, many Twitter replies pointed to his support for the notorious MEK. Rhode says “Within the District, MEK is famous for its aggressive lobbying efforts. They spent with wild abandon to get their names stricken from the terrorist list. Nobody’s sure how much. Who received those funds? Among others, Howard Dean. Dean is a Democrat, and the MEK are equal-opportunity spenders.”

October 20, 2017