Sander Lleshaj and the MEK did not want the case of Ehsan Bid and his illegal dumping at the Greek border to come to the media but they failed. Here we are.
Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group
The complicity of corrupt elements of the security services, the Albanian government and the Rajavi terrorist cult with the intervention of the US embassy is not hidden from anyone. Iranian diplomats and journalists have been expelled from Albania for alleged security reasons, based on information given solely by the MEK. And this has become the sole propaganda platform of the Rajavi cult, for which Trump has expressed his satisfaction with the Albanian government.
Maryam Rajavi, who considered herself successful in carrying out such conspiracies and used this excuse to suppress dissidents in her organization and linked any criticism and opposition to her to the Ministry of Intelligence of Iran and security issues, this time created a plan for Ehsan Bidi, a former member of the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) and an asylum seeker.
Corrupt elements in the Albanian security police, who easily covered up even the murders by the Rajavi cult in their third camp, this time, went to silence the voice of a former member who had made revelations and encouraged other dissident members to make revelations.
Ehsan Bidi left the MEK in Iraq about seven years ago and tried to reach Europe, where he was imprisoned in Egypt and finally entered Albania as a refugee with the intervention of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
In Albania, he endured all kinds of pressures, all of which originated from the Rajavi terrorist cult, and was even threatened and harassed by the mercenaries of the Rajavi cult, but he did not give up and was determined to expose the inhuman nature of Rajavi to everyone.
Finally, in August of last year, Ehsan Bidi, who had a ten-year residence permit as well as a work permit, was illegally arrested by corrupt elements in the security services and the Albanian government without charge. The aim was to expel him from Albania and send him to Iran, and an attempt was made to force Ehsan Bidi to sign such a request so that it could be done easily. But he was tough as nails and resisted.
Maryam Rajavi imagined that Ehsan Bidi was similar to an Iranian diplomat or journalist who could easily be framed and expelled from Albania by giving large bribes to corrupt elements and bringing the US embassy to the square and shouting victory.
Albania wants to join the European Union in order to solve its growing economic problems, and in return, the European Union wants the Albanian government to resolve the current corruption in the judiciary, the police and the government and to bring itself closer to the desired European standards.
A year passed and the issue of Ehsan Bidi was brought to the attention of many legal and human rights circles. The Rajavi cult could not carry out its conspiracy in this one case, and the task became much more difficult for them. The Albanian government was forced to withdraw due to considerations in Europe.
Ehsan Bidi is now free in Albania, and Albanian officials have apologized to him, but this is just the beginning. He will certainly speak more, in detail and at appropriate times. Of course, it goes without saying that the Rajavi cult was so sure of the work of the corrupt elements in the Albanian security apparatus that it published the news of Ehsan Bidi’s illegal expulsion from Albania and fed it to the paid media.
In addition to Mr. Ehsan Bidi and his unparalleled one-year resistance, thanks to political activist Mr. Olsi Yazeji, journalist Mr. Gjergji Thanasi, and lawyer Ms. Migena Balla, and many other Albanian politicians, journalists, and lawyers who have worked in this direction and of course, they were insulted, slandered and threatened by the Rajavi cult, as well as the former members’ activities in Albania and the families in Europe. Rajavi’s conspiracy could not have been thwarted without their tireless efforts.
BY Lawyer Ms. Atefeh Nadalian, Translated by Iran Interlink
Collaboration between Corrupt elements in Albania’s government and the Rajavi Cult against former members and Ehsan Bidi
Iranian asylum seeker Ehsan Bidi has been in the custody of corrupt Albanian security officials since August of last year, without charge, without trial, without the right to visit, and in a completely illegal manner.
He was recently informed that he was to be released after a year. It was not clear why he was arrested, why he was released without charge or trial, and why he has been in prison for a year.
There was news from some people in the Albanian security apparatus that there was a conspiracy against Bidi. (Bidi is a former member of the MEK – aka Rajavi cult – which operates an extraterritorial, extrajudicial base inside Albania.) Since Ehsan Bidi had not complied with the demands of the security forces during this year, despite intense pressure, they had planned another project. Information emerged that they would first release him, then kidnap him and transfer him to an unknown location, and then express their ignorance about his fate after his release.
The involvement of the Rajavi terrorist cult, which is backed by some Western security services, became even more apparent in this criminal plot when a statement was issued by the so-called “Security and Counter-Terrorism Commission of the National Council of Resistance” on August 10, 2020.
The announcement states:
The Iranian Ministry of Intelligence has placed its mercenaries under the control of former members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Orgnization (MEK) in two parts under the control of mercenaries Hassan Heyrani and Gholamreza Shokri. Another mercenary, Ehsan Bidi, who had been exposed in previous announcements by the Security and Counter-Terrorism Commission, has been under arrest in a closed camp for a year since August 2019. During this time he received money and facilities through other mercenaries.
It is also stated that:
Gjergji Thanasi and Olsi Yazejiare are in direct contact with mercenaries such as Hassan Heirani, and their café, Frank, is their hangout.
It turned out that the information received was completely correct and the Rajavi cult also tried to prevent any revelations and obstruction of its propaganda during the implementation of this conspiracy, by the former members and those who wish to help them.
In this regard, a campaign was launched in Europe and inside Albania, and letters from many members of the Albanian Parliament as well as representatives of the European Parliament were sent to the Albanian Interior Minister, warning of such a conspiracy. Many reporters told police they wanted to be with Ehsan Bidi when he was released.
Families and other former members also rallied in Britain, France, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Sweden and Turkey, and approached the Albanian embassies there to warn of the conspiracy, which is the work of the Rajavi cult’s ‘Terrorism and Counter-Security Commission’. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other human rights and international organizations also intervened.
Breath taking hours have passed in recent days. The Albanian government, which wants to join the European Union, was at a crossroads as to whether it could further undermine its record and standards by supporting a terrorist cult or choosing a principled approach to its future.
None of the Albanian government officials was held accountable for the large number of referrals and questions regarding Ehsan Bidi. Although he was released on paper, they did not actually release him, and reporters were constantly seeking news. The Rajavi cult was in dire need of not being forced to retreat in this case, so it was fully active with no place left to go.
Finally, on Thursday, August 13th, Ehsan was transferred to an unknown destination with four Arab refugees. In the face of the corrupt elements in the Albanian government and security apparatus, there were those who did not sell their honor and helped from a humane position, and were careful and provided the necessary information. At the risk of their position, these individuals refused to be complicit in the Albanian government’s corruption.
As we are already informed, they tried to smuggle him into Greece through a neutral non-residential area and leave him there, but the Greek authorities were immediately informed and they sent troops to close the area, resulting in Albanian agents leaving Ehsan Bidi without water and food in the same uninhabited area.
Informed UN officials immediately went to the scene and transferred Ehsan Bidi to a temporary location to ensure his minimum security. The response of the Albanian authorities to the multitude of questions is very interesting. They merely apologized and claimed innocence in front of international observers.
“I’m sorry, there was a mistake,” said a police official, “On the release form of Mr Ehsan Bidi was mistakenly written that he should be deported immediately instead of writing that he should be released immediately.”
The Rajavi cult, which was informed immediately about the case by the corrupt government elements, happily announced in one or two of paid for publications that “Ehsan Bidi has been expelled from Albania.”
More interestingly, the Albanian Interior Minister was completely embarrassed and blamed the Immigration Office, and of course the Immigration Office reacted that it was completely unaware of the matter and that the security officials and the police acted arbitrarily.
They are currently blocking interviews with Ehsan Bidi. But the ban will not last long, and the corrupt elements in the Albanian government, whose names and identities are well known, will finally be held accountable.
After Iran agreed to the terms of UN Resolution 598[1], Saddam Hussein confessed at a closed-meeting that he fully intended to renege on the terms of the ceasefire to strike Iran when it the least expected.
Wafiq al-Samarraee, then the head of the Iraqi army intelligence agency and director of military intelligence for Iran noted: “President Saddam, at a special secret meeting at the Ministry of Defense told us: ‘if we succeed in overthrowing the Iranian government, Kuwait will join Iraq, so there is a historic opportunity for a massive attack to overthrow the Iranian regime and changing it with a new government which we will elect [2].”
also read: A portrait of “Eternal Light” drawn by an Eye – witness
According to the Iraqi intelligence official, the MEK assured Saddam that should its members come to rule, Iran would forever be a friend of Iraq and thus support its policies.
The MEK / MKO was so bent on seizing power that its leadership willingly plotted a war against their own, putting millions of innocents in harm’s way. Most striking remains the group’s divorce from reality as its leaders continue, even to this day, to believe they have some form of popular legitimacy.
Captain Sattar Sa’ ad of the 3rd Army Corps of the Iraqi Army was there during Operation Forough Javidan; he wrote in his diary: “Massoud Rajavi repeatedly said that in those areas we were going to operate in the people would support us. But Rajavi and his men deceived us. I quickly realized that all Iranians we came across in fact hated Massoud Rajavi and his wife. I saw with my own eyes how they tore Massoud Rajavi’s pictures and his wife and how strongly they resisted.[3]”
also read: Ali Einakian;Joining and leaving Mujahedin
The captain also commented on the crimes and moral deprivation MEK militants so eagerly committed. How for example the group’s female militants gave away sexual favours to prove their loyalty to Iraq and its military. He also described the cruelty of all MEK militants when confronted with Iranian civilians, how they tore at the flesh of women and executed the innocent.
Mersad Operation the Counter Attack of Iran Military Forces
After Iran accepted the UN resolution 598 and declared a ceasefire with Iraq, Saddam used the terrorist MKO group encamped in Iraq to gain as much of Iranian territory as possible.
The MKO was calculating on civil unrest against the regime and public support for their cause. An army of about 15,000 Anti-Iranian forces equipped with weapons and logistics supplied by Iraq and other enemies of Iran started their invasion from west. This proved again that MKO and their European allies did not have a clue about Iranian psychology as Iranians quickly entered the battle position and started the Mersad Operation on July, 28, 1988 with the code:Ya Ali.
Happy with their initial success, the Anti-Iranian army moved towards Kermanshah with dreams of capturing Tehran. They were unaware that this was a tactical move to get them all inside a trap. 34 km west of Bakhtaran, a rain of fire descended upon the enemy destroying most of their armored vehicles including 120 tanks. In this operation 4800 of enemy mercenaries were killed while others fled towards Iraq.
The operation of Forough Javidan became a fiasco for MEK and considered as the worst military operation of the world based on the tactics that many MEK members were killed or arrested. After the operation, Massoud Rajavi shamelessly denied all responsibilities, preferring instead to blame his members’ lack of commitment.
The Iranian Mersad Operation was an extraordinary operation that most of the world military experts claim it as a great operation that showed the quick counter attack of Iranian military forces and one of the examples of military tactics around the world.
Sources:
[1] Security Council Resolution 598 is one of the resolutions issued on July 29, 1988 to end the Iran-Iraq war.
[2] Quoted from the memoir of Captain Sattar al-Sa’ad, responsible for the development of operational activities in the Iraqi Third Corps. Book “Memoire of Captain Sattar al-Sa’ad”
[3] The same source
Alireza Niknam, geopolitica.ru
On Friday, the so-called National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) held its annual conference — online because of spreading COVID-19 outbreaks.
NCRI has nothing to do with democratic values, everything to do with wanting Iran transformed into a US controlled fascist police state as it was from 1953 to 1979 under US installed Mohammad Reza Palavi.
The NCRI coalition of extremist elements is led by the so-called People’s Mujahedin of Iran (the MEK).
Until 2012, the group was a State Department terrorist organization.
It operates the same way now, violence and vandalism its specialties, supported by bipartisan US Iranophobes, using the group as a dagger against sovereign Islamic Republic independence, free from US control.
Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh earlier called the MEK a Western intelligence-linked group, covertly funded for anti-Iranian terrorist activities, supplying their operatives with “arms and intelligence.”
The CIA and Pentagon likely continue to arm, fund, and train its operatives, using them as an instrument of US war OF terror, not on it.
Targeted assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists were carried out by MEK members — financed and trained by Israel’s Mossad.
It’s unclear if they may have been responsible for explosions and fires that occurred this year in Iran, including at the country’s Natanz nuclear site, its main uranium processing facility.
According to Hersh earlier, (t)he first units of the MEK…show(ed) up in Nevada in late 04, early 05, and it was (for) months and months of (special forces) training” by the Pentagon’s Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC).
Hersh explained that their training included high-tech communications tactics, use of spy drones, explosives, and enhanced interrogation techniques.
The US and Israel are waging war on Iran by other means, including use of state-terror, part of their aim to topple Tehran’s legitimate government.
On Saturday, Press TV reported that Tehran’s UK envoy Hamid Baeidinejad slammed a Saudi-funded London television network, specializing in anti-Iran propaganda, for promoting and televising NCRI’s Friday conference.
“By broadcasting the gathering of the terrorist Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) that is the murderer of tens of thousands of innocent Iranians, the Saudi Iran International network displayed its full-scale obscenity and shamelessness,” he tweeted, adding that Riyadh helps fund the group.
Press TV explained that the MEK (aka the MKO) sided with US-supported Saddam Hussein during what’s known as the 1980s Iran-Iraq War.
MEK terrorism is responsible for killing “about 12,000” Iranians.
The US and other Western countries removed the group from their “terrorist blacklists.”
It holds annual US/Western/Saudi supported conferences, hardliners from these countries featured as speakers.
According to Reuters, participants at Friday’s conference included Trump regime lawyer Rudy Giuliani and 18 US senators.
John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, Joe Lieberman, Newt Gingrich, Howard Dean, and other well-known US officials appeared at earlier MEK gatherings in a show of support — receiving thousands of dollars for their participation.
During Friday’s conference, MEK leader Maryam Rajavi said its “mission…is to overthrow the mullahs.”
The NCRI is an MEK front group. During Friday’s online session, Giuliani promoted regime change in Iran, saying the following:
“(T)he mullahs are like the people who ran the mafia, the people I prosecuted who ran the mafia and extorted their people,” adding:
“Regime change in Iran is within reach. That’s the goal of NCRI and (MEK head) Maryam Rajavi.”
She delivered red meat remarks that included saying “(o)ur first commitment is…overthrow(ing) (Iran’s ruling authorities and) reclaim(ing)” the country.
For all its huffing, puffing, US training, and monetary support from Washington and the Saudis, the MEK has scant backing in Iran at most.
A Final Comment
An earlier RAND Corporation “study” said after the US delisted the MEK as a terrorist organization, designating its members as “protected persons,” it left itself “open to charges of hypocrisy in the war on terrorism,” adding:
Practices of the cult-like group include “physical abuse (and) limited…options” for members to escape from its control.
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
The Interview With Prof. Tim Anderson
The Mojahedin-e Khalq is the name of a terrorist organization, this sect has committed many crimes in its dark life, such as the assassination of thousands of Iranians, Kurds and Americans. We talk about this regard with Professor Tim Anderson, the professor of the University of Sydney, a writer, researcher and anti-imperialist activist.
Here’s the full transcript of the interview:
Q1. According to the news about the cooperation of MEK with spy agencies such as Mossad and the CIA in creating violence and terror in Iran, as well as their cooperation with ISIS in the war with Syria, how do you assess the nature of MEK in this regard?
Pr. Anderson: In the 1970s the MEK participated in the anti-Shah movement but then rapidly fell out with the Islamic Republic and sought refuge with Saddam Hussein in Iraq. In that collaboration they betrayed Iran so badly that they cut off any possibility of return and became a violent and secretive cult in exile, only able to survive through deals with foreign sponsors. MEK terrorism during the Iran-Iraq war will not be forgotten by Iranians with a sense of history. For example, the US Government confirms that in 1981 the MEK “detonated bombs in the head office of the Islamic Republic Party and the Premier’s office, killing some 70 high-ranking Iranian officials, including Chief Justice Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, President Mohammad-Ali Rajaei, and Premier Mohammad-Javad Bahonar”. Then later during that war Saddam Hussein “armed the MEK with military equipment and sent it into action against Iranian forces” (US Dept State 2006). Their current sponsors admit that the MEK attacked the volunteers who were defending the Iranian nation.
Q2. MEK in Albania are trying to influence the Albanian authorities to develop their goals in that country, so that now the Albanians can’t even speak against them, like the story of the George Thanasi’s complaint who is upset about the presence of a terrorist group in his country and has revealed their true terrorist face to the world and because of the influence of the MEK in the Albanian judiciary, he has not yet succeeded in resolving his complaint against MEK. Aren’t the Albanian people the ones who do the most harm in hosting Mujahedin-e Khalq?
Pr. Anderson: As in all such cases, we should not blame the people of Albania but rather the Albanian regime, which seeks to ingratiate itself with Washington (and get funds from Washington’s puppets, such as the al Saud regime) by hosting both the MEK and DAESH. Certainly this will cause problems for the Albanian people, as a sheltered terrorist group cannot be completely controlled. They will visit some degree of chaos on their host territory.
also read: I love my country and I consider MEK a national security threat, says Albanian journalist
In this case investigative journalist Gjergji Thanasi has exposed MEK activities in Albania, pointing out that they pay no taxes and have helped bring DAESH families to the country. MEK activities were also denounced by Olsi Jazexhi, Director of the Free Media Institute in Tirana. Albanian MEPs subsequently met to discuss the MEK threat at home (EU Reporter 2018). Thanasi and others have since indicated that the MEK also poses a public health threat to the country, as its camps are not subject to national health measures (Khodabandeh 2020).
Q3. MEK claims about the human rights while they have violated almost all human rights laws, from forced divorce of the members and the separation of children from families and sending them to Europe and removing the womb of some women that were close to the leader of the organization and torturing and imprisoning members who are critical and dissatisfied with the organization’s leadership are all a gross violation of human rights. Can Mujahedin-e Khalq organization be expected to claim human rights with these inhumane acts which are happening to its members?
Pr. Anderson: The internal repression of the group can be better understood when we appreciate that this is an exile group cut off from any real base in Iranian society, and only able to operate and gain funds through its terrorism and propaganda, on the demand of its foreign sponsors. So while senior EU and US officials (recently Rudi Giuliani and John Bolton) visit their camps in Albania to speak of ‘freedom’, defectors tell of torture and forced sterilization of members (Hussain and Cole 2020). Of course they are unable to credibly speak of ‘human rights’, considering their internal repression and external terrorism.
also read:Why are Journalists Iranian spies according to the MEK?
Q4. MEK are terrified that someone would enter their camp, they severely beat reporters who wanted to cover the camp from the world’s leading news agencies, such as Lindsay Hillsum, the reporter of Channel 4 of UK, and other reporters, what is this fear of reporters stands for? Are they trying to hide something or do they want to hide the facts of human rights violations inside the camp so that people do not know their true nature?
Pr. Anderson: Naturally the MEK leadership wants to hide the discontent within its own ranks. Remember that most of its young people were either not born in Iran or have no memory of the country against which they are now instructed to violently oppose. Many may even question if they are Iranian, having grown up in Iraq and Europe. The group has an existential and identity crisis, and no amount of Saudi money and visiting foreigners can hide that.
Q5. MEK, who call themselves a democratic group, assassinated 12,000 people in Iran alone, including many women, children and ordinary people, and even many members of this group were assassinated by the central members of the organization. They were killed for criticizing or seceding from the organization. Now, can this group claim democracy with these terrorist and sectarian acts?
Pr. Anderson: serious analyst considers the MEK as democratic, and this includes many amongst the ranks of their US sponsors. Frank talking amongst former US officials is widespread, partly due to the fact that the MEK was a listed terrorist group in the USA, from 1997 until 2012. Yet before and after 2012 former US officials say much the same thing: the MEK has little to no support within Iran and is detested by Iranian people, including Iranian-Americans.
For example, a 1994 US State Department report said: “shunned by most Iranians and fundamentally undemocratic, the Mojahedin-e Khalq are not a viable alternative to the current government of Iran” (Shermen 1994). Even a 2018 poll of Iranian Americans showed only 6 percent support for the MEK as a “legitimate alternative” to the current government. The year before a poll of Iranian Americans by the same group showed only 7% had a favourable view of Maryam Rajavi, the leader of the MEK (in Mehr 2019). Explaining this in 2019, former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, John Limbert, wrote that “Iranian Americans … knew the group well and detested it. They knew its murderous history in Iran” (Mehr 2019). All that is before we come to Iranians living in Iran.
Q6. At the beginning of the Iraq Ba’ath party’s war with Iran, MEK joined Saddam and fought against the people of their country, which killed many Iranians, and the Iranian people consider this group traitors and mercenaries and strongly hate them, even other opposition groups hate and avoid them, their goal is to gain power in Iran, in your opinion, does this group have any future in Iran with a record of betrayal against its own people and without any social place among the Iranian people?
Pr. Anderson: For reasons given above, the MEK has no future in Iran. It has no real base, having been cut off from the country for four decades. As even the US Rand Corporation and the American Enterprise Institute affirm, the MEK is only known within Iran for its treachery and collaboration against Iran with Saddam Hussein and foreign powers. A 2009 report for the Rand Corporation concluded: “most of the MeK rank-and-file are neither terrorists nor freedom fighters, but trapped and brainwashed people who would be willing to return to Iran if they were separated from the MeK leadership. Many members were lured to Iraq from other countries with false promises, only to have their passports confiscated by the MeK leadership, which uses physical abuse, imprisonment, and other methods to keep them from leaving” (Goulka, Hansell, Wilke and Larson 2009). Former Rand Corporation analyst Jeremiah Goulka explained “Once upon a time, the MEK did enjoy some measure of popular support in Iran … [but it has become] a cult group that will not bring democracy to Iran and has no popular support in the country” (Goulka 2012). So while Iran has, in the past, offered amnesty to rank and file MEK members who are Iranian, the MEK as a political group has no future within the country.
Q7. At the beginning of its establishment, this group started with anti-imperialist slogans and went so far as to assassinate 6 American officials and citizens in Iran, how is it that this group is now in the welcoming arms of United States and also United States trusts this group that killed American citizens and chanted anti-American slogans?
Pr. Anderson: Washington’s treatment of the group is cynical. US policy makers know very well that it has no future in Iran, but see the group as a tool which can be used to destabilise and spread misinformation – such as baseless and wildly exaggerated claims about poverty and COVID19 deaths in Iran. After the US turned against Saddam Hussein, the MEK’s fortunes and role in Iraq changed. US forces disarmed and sheltered the group after the brutal invasion of Iraq (the MEK offered no resistance) and the US has remained its chief sponsor and protector ever since (Scott 2012). When the Obama administration removed it from the US terrorist list in 2012, this was done with the hope that the now complaint group could be used against the Islamic Republic, they key supporter of independence struggles in the region (in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and, later on, Yemen).
Academic and former CIA analyst Paul Pillar says, contrary to the claims made by the Obama administration in 2012, that “the MEK certainly has been involved in lethal political violence since 2009”, but that is not of concern to Washington. Indeed, they direct MEK violence against Iran. The policy of the Trump regime “consists of using every any means available to hurt and pressure Iran, while paying little attention to the nature of the means used … if the MEK is opposed to the current political order in Tehran, that’s all that matters to the Trump administration”, said Pillar. Funds for the MEK come from the “regional rivals of Iran”. (Heirannia 2018). Iranian officials make it clear that this means Saudis Arabia, the chief source of funds and weapons for terrorism in the entire West Asian region.
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References
EU Reporter (2018) ‘MEPs discuss Mojahedine-E Khalq (MEK) Threat in Albania’, 13 April, online: https://www.eureporter.co/politics/2018/04/13/meps-discuss-mojahedine-e-khalq-mek-threat-in-albania/
Goulka, Jeremiah; Lydia Hansell, Elizabeth Wilke, Judith Larson (2009) ‘The Mujahedin-e Khalq in Iraq: A Policy Conundrum’, Rand Corporation, 4 August, online: https://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG871.html
Goulka, Jeremiah (2012) ‘The Cult of MEK’, 18 July, online: https://prospect.org/world/cult-mek/
Heirannia, Javad (2018) ‘MEK Sources of funds are Iran’s regional rivals: ex-CIA official
International, 28 November, online: https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/429981/MEK-Sources-of-funds-are-Iran-s-regional-rivals-ex-CIA-official
Hussain, Murtaza and Matthew Cole (2020) ‘Defectors tell of torture and forced sterilization in militant Iranian cult’, The Intercept, 22 March, online: https://theintercept.com/2020/03/22/mek-mojahedin-e-khalq-iran/
Jazexhi, Olsi (2018) ‘Has Donald Trump Appointed Madam Maryam Rajavi As Foreign Minister Of Albania?, American Herald Tribune, 22 December, online: https://ahtribune.com/world/europe/2728-maryam-rajavi-albania.html
Khodabandeh, Massoud (2020) ‘Iranian MEK cult in Albania poses public health risk’, responsible Statecraft, 24 April, online: https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2020/04/24/iranian-mek-cult-in-albania-poses-public-health-risk/
Mehr (2019) ‘The MEK is not a valid alternative’, 13 July, online: https://en.mehrnews.com/news/147568/The-MEK-is-not-a-valid-alternative
Shane, Scott (2012) ‘Iranian Dissidents Convince U.S. to Drop Terror Label’, New York Times, 21 Sept, online: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/22/world/middleeast/iranian-opposition-group-mek-wins-removal-from-us-terrorist-list.html
Shermen, Wendy R. (1994) ‘1994 US State Department Report on the People’s Mojahedin of Iran’, US State Department, 28 October, online: http://iran.org/news/1994_10-State-Dept-MEK-report.htm
US Dept State (2006) ‘Foreign Terrorist Organizations’, online: https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2005/65275.htm
By Alireza Niknam, Geopolitica.ru
News that, in spite of the difficulties thrown up by the COVID-19 pandemic, the European Commission accession talks are going ahead is welcome. Albania, in particular, has many serious issues to address if it is to make progress and the country will benefit from pressure to meet EU expectations on combatting crime and corruption as well as instituting judicial and political reforms.
The recent arrest of 5 senior officials of Albania’s Regional Border and Migration Directorate on charges of people smuggling and illegal assistance to cross the borders, after an investigation into illegal trafficking and abuse of migrant documentation, illustrates the depth of Albania’s problems. Coordination with the CIA in these arrests by Director General of the State Police, Ardi Veliu also reminds us that one of Albania’s difficulties has been to emerge in any meaningful way from under the control of the US as a NATO state.
These arrests have inadvertently exposed another significant, but easily ignored aspect to US influence – the presence of the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK, MKO, Rajavi cult), an Iranian terrorist group which operates as a mind control cult. The MEK in Albania is protected by the Trump administration and claims CIA links. Albania’s government has allowed the MEK unprecedented freedom; freedom that former benefactor Saddam Hussein never granted. Indeed, the tolerance of and collusion with the MEK’s maverick, often criminal behaviour acts like a litmus test for how corrupt various Albanian institutions are.
In the case of the police arrests, several former members of the MEK who live in Tirana said they were surprised and relieved because “These five are the same police who have been harassing us, refusing to give us residence permits and denying our basic rights. They have arrested one of us and detained him without charge for almost a year. The police have been doing this on behalf of MEK leaders.” What this exposes is that the MEK enjoys undue influence with the police services, and that MEK members do not have any legal status in the country; no ID papers, work permits or travel documents. They are not refugees, they are stateless and unaccountable people who live outside the law.
Since arriving in Albania in 2016, the MEK presence has been at best problematic – the MEK has interfered in the internal and external affairs of the country – and at worst poses a serious security risk. An examination of MEK behaviour reveals profound corruption in every institution of Albania.
The following sample of the range of MEK activities in Albania displays a pattern not of simple disregard for the laws and norms of the host community, but a deliberate exploitation of weaknesses in every aspect of the Albanian state from local to national level.
The MEK:
Persuaded deputy Anti-Trafficking Coordinator, Dr Elona Gjebrea to support Maryam Rajavi even though MEK modern slavery is clear for all to see.
Diverted drinking water [in English] from a tourist area for their camp.
Taken precedence for the supply of electricity to their camp over local residents.
Angered locals by burying one of their dead in an already overcrowded cemetery.
Evaded the post mortem examination of a member who died in suspicious circumstances [in English].
Had media interviews removed after Anne Khodabandeh revealed the MEK was recruiting Albanian youth.
Falsely accused two Iranian academics of being terrorists and used this as evidence to have diplomatic staff from the Iranian embassy expelled after MEK labelled them terrorists.
Established an extrajudicial, extraterritorial camp to keep members in a state of modern slavery.
Used slaves to run a troll farm against the national interests of Albania.
Interfered in media freedoms to have favourable articles published and critical articles suppressed.
Denied access and physically assaulted western journalists who came to report on the activities in the closed camp in Manez.
Paid politicians and personalities to attend their meetings and promote their anti-Iran agenda using Albania as a platform to call for violent regime change against Iran [in English].
In response to revelations of its activities, the MEK accuses critics of being “agents of Iran’s intelligence services” – cult jargon intended to frighten the members and call into question the integrity of the critics and distract attention from MEK illegal activities.
Even respected and well-known Albanian citizens are not exempt from the MEK’s unchecked defamation and intimidation campaign. Albanian journalist Gjergji Thanasi is still seeking justice against leading member MEK Behzad Safari as court hearing after court hearing is postponed after spurious excuses are raised. Civil rights activist and historian Olsi Jazexhi and lawyer Migena Bala have been threatened with violence by MEK for investigating and criticizing the cult.
What is to be done?
Clearly, if the European Union is to welcome Albania as a member state something must be done to root out the MEK’s influence in that country. In the past two years, member states of the European Union have severely curtailed MEK activities in Europe. The MEK leader Maryam Rajavi has been obliged to quit France and set up her new headquarters in Albania. There can be no doubt that the EU will not tolerate the group re-entering by default should Albania finally join the union. If Albania does issue them with ID papers, these ‘refugees’ will have direct access to everywhere in the EU following accession.
It is time to dismantle the group.
In 2003 when Saddam Hussein was removed from power, families of MEK members who had not seen their loved ones for two decades made the perilous journey to Camp Ashraf to make contact. These families joined together as an NGO called Nejat Society (Rescue Society) and Sahar Family Foundation was created to help disaffected members in Iraq. Since then they have helped hundreds of individuals who left the MEK to reunite with their families, de-radicalise and return to normal life. In that time, the MEK has transferred from Iraq to Albania, but still in 2020, many, many members remain trapped, incommunicado without knowledge of how they can be helped.
Back in August 2017, an official from the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Tirana met with representatives of these families and pledged to help. Visiting Tirana, Iran Interlink representative Anne Khodabandeh explained how important families are to helping de-radicalise MEK members after they leave the group, and offering them support in returning to normal life.
Since then MEK have waged a campaign to demonize families of MEK members who travelled, or want to travel, to Albania to make contact with their long estranged loved ones, labelling them terrorists and accusing them of wanting to kill their relatives, ensuring they cannot obtain visas.
Families’ petition Albania’s PM
In May this year, a petition by the families addressed to Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama reached over eleven thousand signatures. There is a lot of sympathy for the plight of these families, many of whom are elderly and are desperate to be reconciled with their loved ones before it is too late. The petition urges Albania’s prime minister to allow the families to contact their loved ones in the MEK camp. Tens of families added personal appeals and wrote individual letters. Still Rama has not responded.
MEK leader Maryam Rajavi boasts that she can organize a Zoom conference from Albania on July 17th to link up paid pundits she would normally invite to her annual rally – a cut price event. On July 16th families from every province in Iran linked up by Zoom to talk and asked ‘if Rajavi is so afraid that we will come to the camp with bombs, why can’t she allow our loved ones to make supervised Zoom calls with us from afar?’
MEK leader Maryam Rajavi boasts that she can organize a Zoom conference from Albania on July 17th to link up paid pundits she would normally invite to her annual rally – a cut price event. On July 16th families from every province in Iran linked up by Zoom to talk and asked ‘if Rajavi is so afraid that we will come to the camp with bombs, why can’t she allow our loved ones to make supervised Zoom calls with us from afar?’
Albania Accession TO EU – Open Letter to the Negotiators
If the European Union is serious about allowing Albania to accede to the union, the negotiators on all sides must take this issue seriously. The coronavirus pandemic offers a strange but real opportunity to treat this as a humanitarian issue rather than a political or terrorism problem. The MEK can be dismantled, the members rescued, their families are ready to help. Edi Rama should be supported in taking this courageous and defining step to secure the future of his country.
To:
Olivér Várhelyi – European Commissioner Neighbourhood and Enlargement
Genoveva Ruiz Calavera – Director of the Western Balkans at the European Commission
Isabel Santos – EP Standing Rapporteur on Albania
Zef Mazi – Albania’s chief negotiator for EU integration
David McAllister – Chair of Foreign Affairs Committee EUP
–
By Anne and Massoud Khodabandeh, Iranian.com
Saddam Hussein’s regime was widely regarded as the sole state supporter of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK, MKO, Rajavi Cult). Massoud Rajavi went to Iraq in June 1986 after meeting with then Iraqi Foreign Minister and Vice President Tariq Aziz, and moved his forces there, forming the National Liberation Army as a ‘private army’ in Saddam Hussein’s military and security system.
At that time Iraq became the main stronghold of the MEK, and Saddam Hussein became the only state supporter of Massoud Rajavi and his armed forces. Rajavi was actively involved in the Iran-Iraq war, though on the side of the aggressor enemy and against the border guards and defenders of the homeland, and because of this great national betrayal, he became extremely hated by the Iranian people. He destroyed what was left of his popular base in exchange for Saddam Hussein’s substantial support for gaining power in Iran.
This situation continued until the coalition forces invaded Iraq in 2003 and Saddam Hussein was toppled. During this period Massoud Rajavi and his forces continued their terrorist activities inside Iran with the full support of the Ba’athist regime in Iraq. The fall of the dictator in Baghdad brought about dramatic changes for the MEK. Massoud Rajavi’s time was over and he was forced into hiding. Maryam Rajavi went to Paris as the new figurehead of the cult, and the MEK forces in Iraq were disarmed and corralled into a single US guarded camp.
The MEK leaders had enjoyed extremely good conditions in Iraq under Saddam Hussein and were able to gather their forces in isolated and remote camps where they could cut off members’ contact with the outside world, especially with their families and friends.
After the fall of Saddam Hussein, each successive sovereign government of Iraq, one after another, called for the expulsion of the MEK as a threat to national security. Rajavi did his best to stay in Iraq and not lose Ashraf garrison and the border with Iran; he hoped that a spark would re-ignite the war between the two countries. He even opened an account for the US invasion of Iran and planned the conditions for entering the country. Finally, after many hardships, the rest of the MEK left Iraq in late summer 2016 and arrived in Albania under an unconventional agreement. Albania was the only country ready to accept them. Members of the organization were admitted collectively without proper asylum status or travel documents in violation of UN rules.
Unlike in Iraq, the MEK in Albania did not have an isolated and remote camp to gather in. This was not sustainable for the organization as it experienced a daily decline with tens of members deserting the group. The original plan was for Albania to be the mediator country and from there the process of deradicalization, rehabilitation and distribution of the MEK combatants into various European and American countries would begin. Accordingly, a number of them were accepted by the United States. But with the emergence of the Trump administration and the rise to power of warmongers such as John Bolton, this trend changed and the MEK were moved to a US-provided camp, where the leaders were able again to impose coercive methods of control in the same way as Camp Ashraf in Iraq. Interestingly, this new camp was given the name Ashraf 3 – an acknowledged continuation of Ashraf’s infamous and notorious garrison in Iraq.
In Iraq under Saddam Hussein, Rajavi and his cult had restrictions imposed on them because of national security issues. They were not allowed to leave their camps. Their movement outside the camp for essential matters such as visiting doctors or attending hospital was possible only with the escort of Estekhbarat (the Intelligence Protection Organization of the military and law enforcement forces) agents. They did not have the right to communicate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Members of Parliament, Ministers, government officials, businessmen, police officers, municipal authorities, and so on. They were limited to communicating with the Ministry of Defense and the Army. They were not even allowed to communicate with the Mokhaberat (Intelligence and Security Organization). They were not allowed to refer to the Iraqi media and citizens. Even to buy their necessities, they had to act through army intelligence officers who were permanently stationed in the MEK garrisons. They had no right to engage in any economic, social, political, or propaganda activities inside Iraq, and were entirely under the control of Iraqi military intelligence. The routine meetings of Massoud Rajavi and other leaders of the organization took place only with officials of this body and they resolved all their issues through it. Even to leave the country or enter Iraq, they had to go through this channel and not through the normal and official channels of the country. Immediately after accepting the ceasefire between Iran and Iraq under Saddam Hussein, Iranians could easily obtain visas and visit Iraq. Instead of restricting all Iranian citizens, the government restricted the MEK.
But the MEK face no such restrictions in Albania. The open hand that Edi Rama – at what cost and for whose interests it is not clear – has given to the MEK in his country has allowed the MEK to extend its malign influence into every aspect of the country’s governance, while ordinary Iranians are banned from visiting the country. The MEK are free to protest against an article in the Gazeta Impakt that they did not like, and write an open letter, shamelessly calling for legal action against it, and Albanian citizens such as civil rights activist Olsi Jazexhi, lawyer Migena Balla, and journalist Gjergji Thanasi, have been threatened and slandered for displeasing the MEK. Was Rajavi allowed to act in this manner against Saddam Hussein?
It is worth noting then that Albania’s Prime Minister, Edi Rama, has taken a step further than Saddam Hussein to support the Rajavi Cult, to the point where he has endangered the national security of his country and even Europe. If Edi Rama has real authority to govern his country and does not – as it appears he does – have to obey the demands of foreigners, he needs to think a little harder about his country’s national interests and think about why Saddam Hussein had limited the MEK in Iraq so much and why subsequent Iraqi governments after Saddam Hussein insisted on expelling the MEK from Iraq? The answer to this question would certainly serve to enlighten Albanian public opinion and clarify the nature of their current government.
By Atefeh Nadalian, Translated by Iran Interlink
Review of the open letter of some members of the MEK to Albanian officials
The websites affiliated to the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK, MKO, or Rajavi cult) have published an article titled ‘An open letter from a number of members of the MEK in Ashraf 3 in Manza to the Albanian officials’ on June 24, 2020, signed by a number of cult members.
Reviewing this open letter reveals some facts about the reactionary nature of the leaders of the Rajavi cult. In the letter, along with dealing with various irrelevant topics, the main problem of the cult is mentioned.
The focus of the cult members’ attack is “an Albanian-language website called Gazeta Impakt”. The crime committed by this site apparently is that it reflects the desires of the suffering families of the members of the Rajavi cult to communicate with their loved ones trapped in the MEK camp in Albania.
Seemingly, this very big crime is enough to threaten the cultic attitude and authoritarian system of the Rajavi cult so that it considers Gazeta Impakt’s coverage as a big security conspiracy against the residents of the isolated and remote camp of the MEK in Albania, and therefore asks the Albanian judiciary to prosecute and suppress this site and its management. The site has been measured by the cult as endangering the security of the MEK.
The letter addressed to Albanian officials, in an authoritative tone, complains against civil activist Olsi Jazexhi, lawyer Migena Balla, and journalist Gjergji Thanasi about why these people in Albania have freedom of expression, and why they are not like some corrupt officials serving the Mafia and the MEK, or rather the US Embassy in Tirana.
According to the cult, these people have other crimes as well. They have also sympathized with the former MEK members in Albania, who the MEK and the Albanian government are trying to pressurize. And they have expressed their sympathies for the family of Somayeh Mohammadi and other families who have arrived in Albania.
This letter clearly reveals the nature and image of the MEK. Suppose that Massoud and Maryam Rajavi get to rule in Iran and a person or a site states something that they do not like, then what happens? The person will definitely be called a terrorist and their action judged as a conspiracy against security, and then the person will be prosecuted and condemned.
When elderly mothers, fathers, and spouses who simply want to communicate with their loved ones in the Rajavi cult’s camp in Albania are called terrorists, who can be considered not a terrorist by the leaders of the cult?
When the actions of three ordinary Albanian citizens, expressing compassion and reflecting the wishes of the suffering families and former members are called terrorism, what sort of action would not be considered terrorism?
And when the MEK shows so much weakness and resentment against the rightful demands of the families and does not tolerate it and reacts hysterically, what kind of people’s demands of human rights and justice will it recognize and accept?
Fortunately, the leaders of the Rajavi cult are increasingly revealing their cultic and dictatorial nature.
Atefeh Nadalian – Translated by Iran Interlink
On May 6, President Trump vetoed a war powers bill specifying that he must ask Congress for authorization to use military force against Iran. Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign of deadly sanctions and threats of war against Iran has seen no let-up, even as the U.S., Iran and the whole world desperately need to set aside our conflicts to face down the common danger of the Covid-19 pandemic.
So what is it about Iran that makes it such a target of hostility for Trump and the neocons? There are many repressive regimes in the world, and many of them are close U.S. allies, so this policy is clearly not based on an objective assessment that Iran is more repressive than Egypt, Saudi Arabia or other monarchies in the Persian Gulf.
The Trump administration claims that its “maximum pressure” sanctions and threats of war against Iran are based on the danger that Iran will develop nuclear weapons. But after decades of inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and despite the U.S.’s politicization of the IAEA, the agency has repeatedly confirmed that Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program.
If Iran ever did any preliminary research on nuclear weapons, it was probably during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, when the U.S. and its allies helped Iraq to make and use chemical weapons that killed up to 100,000 Iranians. A 2007 U.S. National Intelligence Estimate, the IAEA’s 2015 “Final Assessment on Past and Present Outstanding Issues” and decades of IAEA inspections have examined and resolved every scrap of false evidence of a nuclear weapons program presented or fabricated by the CIA and its allies.
If, despite all the evidence, U.S. policymakers still fear that Iran could develop nuclear weapons, then adhering to the Iran Nuclear Deal (JCPOA), keeping Iran inside the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and ensuring ongoing access by IAEA inspectors would provide greater security than abandoning the deal.
As with Bush’s false WMD claims about Iraq in 2003, Trump’s real goal is not nuclear non-proliferation but regime change. After 40 years of failed sanctions and hostility, Trump and a cabal of U.S. war hawks still cling to the vain hope that a tanking economy and widespread suffering in Iran will lead to a popular uprising or make it vulnerable to another U.S.-backed coup or invasion.
United Against a Nuclear Iran and the Counter Extremism Project
One of the key organizations promoting and pushing hostility towards Iran is a shadowy group called United Against a Nuclear Iran (UANI). Founded in 2008, it was expanded and reorganized in 2014 under the umbrella of the Counter Extremism Project United (CEPU) to broaden its attacks on Iran and divert U.S. policymakers’ attention away from the role of Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other U.S. allies in spreading violence, extremism and chaos in the greater Middle East.
UANI acts as a private enforcer of U.S. sanctions by keeping a “business registry” of hundreds of companies all over the world—from Adidas to Zurich Financial Services—that trade with or are considering trading with Iran. UANI hounds these companies by naming and shaming them, issuing reports for the media, and urging the Office of Foreign Assets Control to impose fines and sanctions. It also keeps a checklist of companies that have signed a declaration certifying they do not conduct business in or with Iran.
Proving how little they care about the Iranian people, UANI even targets pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical-device corporations—including Bayer, Merck, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and Abbott Laboratories—that have been granted special U.S. humanitarian aid licenses.
Secretive MKO Cult Member Refuses to Talk to Peace Activists in DC
Where does UANI get its funds?
UANI was founded by three former U.S. officials, Dennis Ross, Richard Holbrooke and Mark Wallace. In 2013, it still had a modest budget of $1.7 million, nearly 80% coming from two Jewish-American billionaires with strong ties to Israel and the Republican Party: $843,000 from precious metals investor Thomas Kaplan and $500,000 from casino owner Sheldon Adelson. Wallace and other UANI staff have also worked for Kaplan’s investment firms, and he remains a key funder and advocate for UANI and its affiliated groups.
In 2014, UANI split into two entities: the original UANI and the Green Light Project, which does business as the Counter Extremism Project. Both entities are under the umbrella of and funded by a third, Counter Extremism Project United (CEPU). This permits the organization to brand its fundraising as being for the Counter Extremism Project, even though it still regrants a third of its funds to UANI.
CEO Mark Wallace, Executive Director David Ibsen and other staff work for all three groups in their shared offices in Grand Central Tower in New York. In 2018, Wallace drew a combined salary of $750,000 from all three entities, while Ibsen’s combined salary was $512,126.
In recent years, the revenues for the umbrella group, CEPU, have mushroomed, reaching $22 million in 2017. CEPU is secretive about the sources of this money. But investigative journalist Eli Clifton, who starting looking into UANI in 2014 when it was sued for defamation by a Greek ship owner it accused of violating sanctions on Iran, has found evidence suggesting financial ties with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
That is certainly what hacked emails between CEPU staff, an Emirati official and a Saudi lobbyist imply. In September 2014, CEPU’s president Frances Townsend emailed the UAE Ambassador to the U.S. to solicit the UAE’s support and propose that it host and fund a CEPU forum in Abu Dhabi.
Four months later, Townsend emailed again to thank him, writing, “And many thanks for your and Richard Mintz’ (UAE lobbyist) ongoing support of the CEP effort!” UANI fundraiser Thomas Kaplan has formed a close relationship with Emirati ruler Bin Zayed, and visited the UAE at least 24 times. In 2019, he gushed to an interviewer that the UAE and its despotic rulers “are my closest partners in more parts of my life than anyone else other than my wife.”
Another email from Saudi lobbyist and former Senator Norm Coleman to the Emirati Ambassador about CEPU’s tax status implied that the Saudis and Emiratis were both involved in its funding, which would mean that CEPU may be violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act by failing to register as a Saudi or Emirati agent in the U.S.
Ben Freeman of the Center for International Policy has documented the dangerously unaccountable and covert expansion of the influence of foreign governments and military-industrial interests over U.S. foreign policy in recent years, in which registered lobbyists are only the “tip of the iceberg” when it comes to foreign influence. Eli Clifton calls UANI, “a fantastic case study and maybe a microcosm of the ways in which American foreign policy is actually influenced and implemented.”
CEPU and UANI’s staff and advisory boards are stocked with Republicans, neoconservatives and warhawks, many of whom earn lavish salaries and consulting fees. In the two years before President Trump appointed John Bolton as his National Security Advisor, CEPU paid Bolton $240,000 in consulting fees. Bolton, who openly advocates war with Iran, was instrumental in getting the Trump administration to withdraw from the nuclear deal.
UANI also enlists Democrats to try to give the group broader, bipartisan credibility. The chair of UANI’s board is former Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman, who was known as the most pro-Zionist member of the Senate. A more moderate Democrat on UANI’s board is former New Mexico governor and UN ambassador Bill Richardson.
Norman Roule, a CIA veteran who was the National Intelligence Manager for Iran throughout the Obama administration was paid $366,000 in consulting fees by CEPU in 2018. Soon after the brutal Saudi assassination of journalist Jamal Khassoghi, Roule and UANI fundraiser Thomas Kaplan met with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman in Saudi Arabia, and Roule then played a leading role in articles and on the talk-show circuit whitewashing Bin Salman’s repression and talking up his superficial “reforms” of Saudi society.
More recently, amid a growing outcry from Congress, the UN and the European Union to ease U.S. sanctions on Iran during the pandemic, UANI chairman Joe Lieberman, CEPU president Frances Townsend and CEO Mark Wallace signed a letter to Trump that falsely claimed, “U.S. sanctions neither prevent nor target the supply of food, medicine or medical devices to Iran,” and begged him not to relax his murderous sanctions because of COVID-19. This was too much for Norman Roule, who tossed out his UANI script and told the Nation, “the international community should do everything it can to enable the Iranian people to obtain access to medical supplies and equipment.”
Two Israeli shell companies to whom CEPU and UANI have paid millions of dollars in “consulting fees” raise even more troubling questions. CEPU has paid over $500,000 to Darlink, located near Tel Aviv, while UANI paid at least $1.5 million to Grove Business Consulting in Hod Hasharon, about 10% of its revenues from 2016 to 2018. Neither firm seems to really exist, but Grove’s address on UANI’s IRS filings appears in the Panama Papers as that of Dr. Gideon Ginossar, an officer of an offshore company registered in the British Virgin Islands that defaulted on its creditors in 2010.
Selling a corrupted picture to U.S. policymakers
UANI’s parent group, Counter Extremism Project United, presents itself as dedicated to countering all forms of extremism. But in practice, it is predictably selective in its targets, demonizing Iran and its allies while turning a blind eye to other countries with more credible links to extremism and terrorism.
UANI supports accusations by Trump and U.S. war hawks that Iran is “the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism,” based mainly on its support for the Lebanese Shiite political party Hezbollah, whose militia defends southern Lebanon against Israel and fights in Syria as an ally of the government.
But Iran placed UANI on its own list of terrorist groups in 2019 after Mark Wallace and UANI hosted a meeting at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York that was mainly attended by supporters of the Mujahedin-e-Kalqh (MEK).
The MEK is a group that the U.S. government itself listed as a terrorist organization until 2012 and which is still committed to the violent overthrow of the government in Iran—preferably by persuading the U.S. and its allies to do it for them. UANI tried to distance itself from the meeting after the fact, but the published program listed UANI as the event organizer.
On the other hand, there are two countries where CEPU and UANI seem strangely unable to find any links to extremism or terrorism at all, and they are the very countries that appear to be funding their operations, lavish salaries and shadowy “consulting fees”: Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Many Americans are still demanding a public investigation into Saudi Arabia’s role in the crimes of September 11. In a court case against Saudi Arabia brought by 9/11 victims’ families, the FBI recently revealed that a Saudi Embassy official, Mussaed Ahmed al-Jarrah, provided crucial support to two of the hijackers. Brett Eagleson, a spokesman for the families whose father was killed on September 11th, told Yahoo News, “(This) demonstrates there was a hierarchy of command that’s coming from the Saudi Embassy to the Ministry of Islamic Affairs [in Los Angeles] to the hijackers.”
The global spread of the Wahhabi version of Islam that unleashed and fueled Al Qaeda, ISIS and other violent Muslim extremist groups has been driven primarily by Saudi Arabia, which has built and funded Wahhabi schools and mosques all over the world. That includes the King Fahd Mosque in Los Angeles that the two 9/11 hijackers attended.
It is also well documented that Saudi Arabia has been the largest funder and arms supplier for the Al Qaeda-led forces that have destroyed Syria since 2011, including CIA-brokered shipments of thousands of tons of weapons from Benghazi in Libya and at least eight countries in Eastern Europe. The UAE also supplied arms funding to Al Qaeda-allied rebels in Syria between 2012 and 2016, and the Saudi and UAE roles have now been reversed in Libya, where the UAE is the main supplier of thousands of tons of weapons to General Haftar’s rebel forces. In Yemen, both the Saudis and Emiratis have committed war crimes. The Saudi and Emirati air forces have bombed schools, clinics, weddings and school buses, while the Emiratis tortured detainees in 18 secret prisons in Yemen.
But United Against a Nuclear Iran and Counter Extremism Project have redacted all of this from the one-sided worldview they offer to U.S. policymakers and the American corporate media. While they demonize Iran, Qatar, Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood as extremists and terrorists, they depict Saudi Arabia and the UAE exclusively as victims of terrorism and allies in U.S.-led “counterterrorism” campaigns, never as sponsors of extremism and terrorism or perpetrators of war crimes.
The message of these groups dedicated to “countering extremism” is clear and none too subtle: Saudi Arabia and the UAE are always U.S. allies and victims of extremism, never a problem or a source of danger, violence or chaos. The country we should all be worrying about is—you guessed it—Iran. You couldn’t pay for propaganda like this! But on the other hand, if you’re Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates and you have greedy, corrupt Americans knocking on your door eager to sell their loyalty, maybe you can.
Medea Benjamin is cofounder of CODEPINK for Peace, and author of several books, including Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Nicolas J. S. Davies is an independent journalist, a researcher with CODEPINK and the author of Blood On Our Hands: the American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq.
By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J S Davies , intrepidreport.com