{"id":9842,"date":"2019-06-10T10:12:45","date_gmt":"2019-06-10T05:42:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/?p=9842"},"modified":"2021-01-21T19:27:40","modified_gmt":"2021-01-21T15:57:40","slug":"9842","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/posts\/9842","title":{"rendered":"The warmonger activist revealed to be fake persona run by MEK"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Iranian Activist Wrote Dozens of Articles for Right-Wing Outlets. But Is He a Real Person?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

In 2018, President Donald Trump was seeking to jettison the landmark nuclear deal that his predecessor had signed with Iran in 2015, and he was looking for ways to win over a skeptical press. The White House claimed that the nuclear deal had allowed Iran to increase its military budget, and Washington Post reporters Salvador Rizzo and Meg Kelly asked for a source. In response, the White House passed along an article published in Forbes by a writer named Heshmat Alavi.
\n\u201cIran\u2019s current budget is funded largely through \u2018oil, taxes, increasing bonds, [and] eliminating cash handouts or subsidies\u2019 for Iranians, according to an article by a Forbes contributor, Heshmat Alavi, sent to us by a White House official,\u201d Rizzo and Kelly reported. The White House had used Alavi\u2019s article \u2014 itself partly drawn from Iranian sources \u2014 to justify its decision to terminate the agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cHeshmat Alavi is a persona run by a team of people from the political wing of the MEK. This is not and has never been a real person.\u201d
\nThere\u2019s a problem, though: Heshmat Alavi appears not to exist. Alavi\u2019s persona is a propaganda operation run by the Iranian opposition group Mojahedin-e-Khalq, which is known by the initials MEK, two sources told The Intercept.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cHeshmat Alavi is a persona run by a team of people from the political wing of the MEK,\u201d<\/em> said Hassan Heyrani, a high-ranking defector from the MEK who said he had direct knowledge of the operation. \u201cThey write whatever they are directed by their commanders and use this name to place articles in the press. This is not and has never been a real person.\u201d<\/em>
\nHeyrani said the fake persona has been managed by a team of MEK operatives in Albania, where the group has one of its bases, and is used to spread its message online. Heyrani\u2019s account is echoed by Sara Zahiri, a Farsi-language researcher who focuses on the MEK. Zahiri, who has sources among Iranian government cybersecurity officials, said that Alavi is known inside Iran to be a \u201cgroup account\u201d run by a team of MEK members and that Alavi himself does not exist.<\/strong>
\nAlavi, whose contributor biography on the Forbes website identifies him as \u201can Iranian activist with a passion for equal rights,\u201d has published scores of articles on Iran over the past few years at Forbes, The Hill, the Daily Caller, The Federalist, Saudi-owned al-Arabiya English, and other outlets. (Alavi did not respond to The Intercept\u2019s requests for comment by Twitter direct messages or at the Gmail address he used to correspond with news outlets.)
\nThe articles published under Alavi\u2019s name, as well as his social media presence, appear to have been a boon for the MEK. An opposition group deeply unpopular in Iran and known for its sophisticated propaganda, the MEK has over the past decade turned its attention to English-language audiences \u2014 especially in countries like the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom, whose foreign policies are crucial nodes in the MEK\u2019s central goal of overthrowing the Iranian regime.<\/p>\n

Alavi\u2019s persona is said to be managed by a trio of MEK members. Heyrani, who at one time helped coordinate online operations for the group, named the individuals and a commander from MEK\u2019s political wing who have been responsible for writing English-language articles and tweets under Heshmat Alavi\u2019s name, and shared their photographs and names with The Intercept. \u201cThey were my friends. We were close friends,\u201d Heyrani said. \u201cWe were working together.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Heyrani explained that the MEK leadership would not look kindly on the fluent English speakers who operate the persona writing under their own names. Rank-and-file members, he said, are discouraged from having prominent public profiles \u2014 a reflection of what many critics have said is the MEK\u2019s cult-like operating principles. \u201cThe leader of the organization doesn\u2019t allow any person to use their real name,\u201d said Heyrani, \u201cbecause the leader is the first man in the organization, and everything should be under their shadow.\u201d<\/strong>
\nThe MEK conducts relentless online information campaigns, using an army of bots to flood online debates about Iran with the group\u2019s perspective. One of the goals of the MEK team that manages the Hesmat Alavi account, Heyrani said, is to get articles under Alavi\u2019s name published in the American press. The Intercept\u2019s requests for comment to the MEK\u2019s political wing, along with interview requests to the alleged operators of Alavi\u2019s persona, went unanswered.
\nAnother former MEK member now living in Canada, Reza Sadeghi, confirmed that the trio identified by Heyrani was involved with the group\u2019s online information operations. Sadeghi was a member of the MEK until 2008, involved in lobbying activities in the United States, as well as operations at the MEK\u2019s former base at Camp Ashraf in Iraq. He described a growing online propaganda center run by the group, intended to sway online discourse about Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were always active in making false news stories to spread to the foreign press and in Iran,\u201d Sadeghi said. \u201cAt Camp Ashraf, there were computers set up to do online information operations. Over the years, this activity got more intense with the introduction of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The MEK is among the most controversial groups seeking to depose the Iranian government. Although today it is mainly involved in political activism and lobbying, the group also has a history of violence. From 1997 until 2012, the MEK was listed as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. State Department, a status that was finally revoked as part of a diplomatic deal struck by the Obama administration. The group\u2019s last claimed violent attack was in 2001.
\nThe MEK initially sided with the Islamic Revolution but fell out of favor shortly after the establishment of the clerical-led Islamic Republic. The subsequent crackdown forced the group into exile, operating between France and Iraq \u2014 where, thanks to Saddam Hussein\u2019s largesse, the group occupied Camp Ashraf, used as a staging ground for its participation on Iraq\u2019s side of the brutal Iran-Iraq War.
\nThe years following the U.S.\u2019s invasion of Iraq were harrowing for the MEK, complicated by the terrorist listing. As the Americans withdrew their military forces, they handed over security at the MEK\u2019s Iraqi base to the Iraqi government; another round of violent crackdowns ensued. The 2012 deal to remove the MEK from the U.S. terror list facilitated the movement of thousands of MEK members from Iraq to Albania, where the group would be housed in a new secretive compound. It is from this base in Albania where, according to the MEK defector Heyrani, some of the MEK members managing the Alavi persona were said to be working.<\/p>\n\n

Alavi\u2019s articles tend to mix scathing denunciations of the Iranian government with not-so-subtle suggestions that it might be replaced by the MEK and its leader, Maryam Rajavi. The group seems to have had great success with Alavi, particularly at Forbes.
\nThe Intercept reached out to editors at the outlets that Alavi has published articles with over the past several years. None of these outlets were able to confirm that they ever spoke with or met Alavi. He was not paid for his writing at Forbes, the Daily Caller, or the Diplomat, according to spokespeople for those publications.
\nAlthough Alavi has published articles about Iran in a number of predominantly right-leaning publications, by far the most frequent publisher of his articles is Forbes. In a span of a year, between April 2017 and April 2018, Alavi published a staggering 61 articles for the Forbes website.<\/p>\n

A Twitter account created under Alavi\u2019s name in 2014 boasts over 30,000 followers, including a number of journalists and D.C.-based conservative think tank employees. The account frequently shares articles and hashtags praising Rajavi and shares footage of protests and events held by the MEK.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Alavi seems to have gained some purchase in right-wing circles in Washington. In addition to his many articles published by Forbes and other sites, Alavi also appears to run a blog called \u201cIran Commentary,\u201d which describes its mission as focusing on \u201cissues related to Iran and the Middle East.\u201d One of its reports was recently cited as a source in an article from the Washington Free Beacon, a neoconservative site that takes an ultra-hawkish view on Iran.
\nThe body of work published under Alavi\u2019s name takes a consistently hawkish line toward the Iranian government and President Hassan Rouhani. Alavi\u2019s articles also mixed criticisms of Iran and U.S. policy with overt advocacy for the MEK. His pieces in the Daily Caller, The Hill, and other outlets \u2014 though less numerous than his contributions to Forbes \u2014 employed a similar mix of advocacy against the Iranian regime and praise for the MEK. Though the MEK is known to be widely loathed among Iranians, Alavi described the group as the \u201cmain Iranian opposition group\u201d in a 2017 Daily Caller article.
\nThe Diplomat, a foreign policy website that published a handful of Alavi\u2019s pieces in 2017, said that Alavi sent drafts from a Gmail account. Alavi pitched the outlet dozens of articles, though only a small number were accepted. The Diplomat stopped accepting pitches from Alavi after determining that his articles were not meeting publication standards, said a source who asked for anonymity to discuss internal matters.
\nThe Daily Caller also told The Intercept that the outlet stopped publishing Alavi\u2019s articles over concerns about the quality of his submissions. The Hill, al-Arabiya English, and The Federalist did not respond to requests for comment.
\n\u201cWe terminated our relationship with Heshmat Alvi in early 2018,\u201d a Forbes spokesperson said in a statement to The Intercept. \u201cFor your background, all contributors to Forbes.com sign a contract requiring them to disclose any potential conflicts of interest. If we discover a contributor has violated these terms, we investigate the case fully and end our relationship if appropriate.\u201d
\nThe MEK uses a number of means to gain influence in Washington. The group has paid prominent political figures to give speeches and press conferences, donated money to politicians, and disseminated its messages through these interlocutors\u2019 appearances in media, as well as its own robust social media presence. In 2018, its social media operations were the subject of an Al Jazeera \u201cListening Post\u201d documentary.
\nThe group has used these public relations efforts to pursue its policy goals. Up until 2012, the MEK was mostly focused on getting itself off the U.S. terror list. In the years that followed, the group focused on attacking nuclear diplomacy between Iran and the U.S., and, after 2015, attacking the deal itself. Throughout, the MEK\u2019s messaging has emphasized regime change \u2014 and attempted to present the MEK as a viable alternative to the Islamic Republic\u2019s leadership, offering Rajavi, who has been the group\u2019s public face for a decade and a half, as a potential figure to lead the country.
\nAlavi\u2019s articles often track closely with these objectives. In his stories, Alavi has included positive references to Rajavi, as well as the MEK\u2019s political wing, the National Council of Resistance of Iran. In an article in Forbes effectively calling for international support for regime change in Iran, Alavi wrote:
\nThe time has come to set aside the \u201creformist\u201d mirage in Iran. For decades, Maryam Rajavi, as President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, is providing the sole, realistic alternative for Iran with a ten-point plan that enjoys the support of thousands of elected officials across the globe.<\/em>
\nLike his focus on the MEK\u2019s goal of elevating Rajavi, Alavi\u2019s messaging has also lined up with the group\u2019s efforts to attack the Iran nuclear deal. During the period between 2017 and 2018, when Alavi\u2019s articles appeared in Forbes, the Trump administration was taking steps to extricate the U.S. from the deal, despite objections from European allies and former Obama administration officials. Alavi\u2019s articles egged the administration on, with items such as \u201cIran Feeling The Heat From Trump On Nuclear Deal\u201d and \u201cHow Trump Can Correctly Approach Iran\u2019s Nuclear Deal.\u201d In May 2018, Trump announced that the U.S. would be withdrawing from the agreement \u2014 one month after Alavi\u2019s last article was published in Forbes.
\nThe MEK\u2019s messaging emphasizes regime change \u2014 and Alavi\u2019s articles often track closely with this objective.
\nThe Alavi article that the White House offered to the Washington Post in 2018 to justify withdrawing from the nuclear deal cited semiofficial Iranian government sources to demonstrate increased military spending by Rouhani government. It concluded with a rhetorical flourish typical of Alavi\u2019s articles, praising the Trump administration for ending \u201cappeasement\u201d policies toward Iran and chastising Europe for \u201cstanding alongside the murderous mullahs\u2019 regime against the will of the Iranian people.\u201d
\nAlavi\u2019s tack \u2014 exerting pressure on political discourse in the United States, rather than in Iran itself \u2014 appears to be part of the MEK\u2019s strategy.
\n\u201cThe group barely produces content in Farsi. They seem to have given up on having a domestic audience in Iran. Their point now is to influence people in the English-speaking world,\u201d said Massoud Khodabandeh, a former member of the MEK\u2019s intelligence department who left the group in 1996. \u201cTheir online strategy works in Washington; it doesn\u2019t work in Tehran.\u201d
\nAlongside its social media strategy and periodic articles, the MEK involves itself in higher-stakes information campaigns. In 2002, the MEK helped reveal the existence of a covert Iranian nuclear facility near the city of Natanz. But according to arms control experts, the MEK got crucial details wrong. A 2006 article in the New Yorker also suggested that the intelligence may have been handed to the group by Israeli intelligence, calling into question the MEK\u2019s claims that it operates a potent espionage network inside Iran.
\nIn other instances, the MEK\u2019s information has been less than reliable, causing skepticism among many Western national security analysts. During a 2015 press conference, MEK officials claimed to have evidence of a secret nuclear facility under construction in Iran, complete with clandestine photographs of the site. This claim was partly debunked by a blogger from the liberal website Daily Kos. A reverse image search of a picture of the purported door to the nuclear site revealed that it had actually been taken from a commercial website in Iran that advertised safe boxes.<\/p>\n

The MEK has had the most success influencing the debate over Iran policy online through its aggressive social media presence. Any remarks about the group or even Iranian politics in general can be expected to be met by scores of MEK-supporters commenting through replies on Twitter and other social media. Many of the pro-MEK accounts will repeat the same messages, often word for word, swarming the mentions of any commentator.
\nGeoff Golberg, an expert on social media manipulation and founder of SocialCartograph, a social media mapping firm, took particular note of Alavi\u2019s Twitter account, which appears to act as a node in an online campaign to boost the MEK\u2019s profile. The account is heavily promoted by other pro-MEK accounts, as well as supporters of the group\u2019s policy of confrontation toward Iran. To casual observers, these swarms of online activity can make it seem as though a large number of Iranians are enthusiastic about whatever it is that the MEK is promoting.
\n\u201cThe Heshmat Alavi account is part of a group of accounts, which, for years, have engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior,\u201d said Golberg. \u201cThe account is connected to thousands of inauthentic MEK-focused accounts, many of which regularly engage with the account\u2019s tweets. The goal of these efforts is to create the illusion of a larger support base than exists in reality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Alavi has left few traces online \u2014 aside from his social media, his articles, and his emails to editors. One single photo, a heavily filtered side profile, is used for all of Alavi\u2019s author profiles, his LinkedIn page, and Twitter account. The photo\u2019s origins are unclear.
\nAt a minimum, there are strong indications that the Alavi persona is not what it claims to be. The use of fake identities to conduct political propaganda has become common in recent years. The 2016 U.S. presidential election saw the use of innumerable bots and fake accounts to spread misinformation and paranoia among the public.
\nA 2018 BBC News investigation looked into another prominent online persona alleged to be false: a Twitter account operating under the name \u201cSarah Abdallah\u201d that was mixed up heavily in the online debate over the war in Syria. The Sarah Abdallah account was in some ways on the opposite side of the political spectrum as Alavi: Abdallah was a vocal supporter of the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad, a close Iranian ally. An online research firm determined Abdallah\u2019s account to be \u201cone of the most influential social media accounts in the online conversation about Syria.\u201d
\nAlthough the BBC investigation raised serious concerns about the influence of a shadowy online account that was being followed by hundreds of real journalists, it stopped short of concluding that Abdallah was fake or being operated by a front organization.
\nFor all her influence, however, Sarah Abdallah was never able to achieve the success of Heshmat Alavi, whose articles were published in U.S. media outlets and read in the White House.
\n\u201cThe Mojahedin wants to show to the world that their narrative has support, even from people who are not directly members of the group.\u201d
\nTo those unfamiliar with the internal politics of Iran, Alavi could come across in his writings as what he simply claimed to be: \u201can Iranian activist with a passion for equal rights.\u201d The former MEK member Heyrani says that this framing is exactly what the group was hoping to create with the persona. To the extent that publications like Forbes were indifferent or amenable to Alavi\u2019s message, it seems to have worked.
\n\u201cThe Mojahedin\u201d \u2014 the Iranian name for the MEK \u2014 \u201cwants to show to the world that their narrative has support, even from people who are not directly members of the group,\u201d Heyrani said. \u201cThey want to show that other independent people \u2014 writers and activists \u2014 support their approach and believe that freedom and democracy will come to Iran through the work of this group.\u201d<\/p>\n

By\u00a0Murtaza Hussain, the intercept<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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