This year’s so-called”grand gathering”of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ the Cult of Rajavi) was held in Albania, instead of holding it near the group’s headquarters in Paris. The group held a five day ceremony to inaugurate its lavish headquarters in a rural region in Albania. The newly built camp is called Ashraf 3, following the name of the group’s infamous camp in Iraq. The five-day event was attended by a large number of former politicians from all over the world including pro-Israeli lobbyist Joe Lieberman, Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, and Saudi lobbyist Salman al-Ansari.
Balkan Post describes the paid speakers of the events as”relatively unknown and belong to the opposition parties”asserting that just a few incumbents are among them. However, they are all offered first class flights and luxurious hotels to attend the inauguration ceremony of the group’s new base in the heart of Europe. These special guests were received in the splendidly decorated halls of the camp. The monuments, museums, billboards and posters mesmerized the guests. So there is no surprise to hear Rudy Giuliani –one of the few incumbents– calling Ashraf 3 a”miracle”!
Who pays for the construction of such a”miracle”?
Definitely, one should add the expenses of the life of at least 2000 residents of the camp, the speaking fees of dozens of speakers who speak in favor of the group in its numerous rallies around the world, the expenses of transportation and accommodation of the hundreds who are rented to make the rallies look crowded, to the expenses of Ashraf 3 construction.
One should also take it into consideration that the labor force including those 2000 people work for free. They are not paid for what they serve the MEK. The MEK propaganda has always claimed that the money comes from the Iranian sympathizers of the group all over the world. The group’s propaganda TV regularly broadcast fund raising shows in which some alleged Iranians donate money to the group’s cause. However, the donations do not seem to afford such huge expenditures of the group.
Indeed, the MEK enjoys Saudi oil dollars as it once enjoyed millions of dollars from the oil for food program in Iraq in Saddam Hussein’s era. Philip M. Giraldi, a former CIA counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer assets:
“The MEK, which is financially supported by Saudi Arabia, stages events in the United States in Europe where it generously pays politicians like John Bolton, Rudy Giuliani and Elaine Chao to make fifteen-minute speeches praising the organization and everything it does. It’s paying of inside the Beltway power brokers proved so successful that it was removed from the State Department terrorist list in 2012 by Hillary Clinton even though it had killed Americans in the 1970s. MEK also finds favor in Washington because it is used by Israel as a resource for anti-Iranian terrorism acts currently, including assassinations carried out in Tehran.”[2]
Giraldi had earlier written about the Saudi-Israeli support for the group in Albania.”And then there is the Saudi and Israeli angle,”he wrote on the Unz Review.”Saudi Arabia is now the major funder of MEK/NCRI. Its intelligence chief Turki al-Faisal spoke before the group in 2017. Israel funded the group in its early days and its external spy service Mossad continues to use MEK stay-behinds in Iran to assassinate scientists and tamper with computer systems. The CIA, which recently expanded its anti-Iran task force, it also working closely with MEK. And Giuliani, Bolton, Chao are all in the White House inner circle, which, not coincidentally, is baying for Iranian blood.”[3]
Thus, building the luxurious Ashraf 3 in a pretty short time is not impossible regarding the abundance of free labor and lavish financial sponsorship. The MEK leaders can buy everything in exchange for selling their nation. But,”The only thing the MEK’s money can’t buy is popular support among Iranians,”states Trita Parsi, the founder of the National Iranian American Council. [4]
Mazda Parsi
Sources:
[1] Balkan Post, Newest MEK terror festival in Albania: a few incumbents among the mass of former officeholders, July 17, 2019.
[2] Giraldi, Philip, False Identities Become the New Weapon: War with Iran Promoted by Fake Journalists, American Herald Tribune, June 17, 2019.
[3] Giraldi, Philip, MEK’s Money Sure Can’t Buy Love But it can buy a lot of politicians, Unz Review, May 29, 2018.
[4] Parsi, Trita, Why Trump’s Hawks Back the MEK Terrorist Cult, NYR Daily, July 20, 2018
