In the final days leading up to the U.S. Presidential election, Iranian-American journalists and other commentators and campaigners are suffering an onslaught of online attacks. Some of these relentless Tweets include death threats. Targeting critics of Trump and his legacy like Jamal Abdi (Head of National Iranian American Council), Negar Mortazavi (prominent Journalist for The Independent and other outlets) and Dr Asal Rad (Historian).
I am now getting death threats from troll armies here on twitter, some wishing harm for me and my family. Here are a few examples. Please take these threats seriously and make this platform safe for everyone, especially journalist.@yoyoel @TwitterSupport @TwitterDC @Policy pic.twitter.com/t5rdTeDOm7
— Negar Mortazavi (@NegarMortazavi) October 24, 2020
On one occasion even Richard Grenell, who has recently been politely expelled from Germany (they really couldn’t stand his regular racist comments and unacceptable interference in European affairs), now the guy who runs the Trump2020 campaign, has retweeted one of these tweets.
Here @RichardGrenell retweets an account previously exposed as a false persona created by the MEK cult falsely accusing a group of Iranian Americans of being Iranian lobbyists. https://t.co/otjbKxdgQQ pic.twitter.com/APm3MqHIef
— Dan Friedman (@dfriedman33) October 27, 2020
The attacks emanate from the MEK’s troll farm in Albania. The MEK’s Heshmat Alavi account is still being used in spite of it being exposed as a fake account last year by Murteza Hussain in The Intercept.
A Trump campaign official is smearing Iranian Americans w/racist dual loyalty charges & amplifying a fake Twitter persona run from an Albanian troll farm by the MEK terrorist group. Oh & this guy was allowed to run US intelligence for a month. 7 DAYS UNTIL WE END THIS NIGHTMARE. pic.twitter.com/HbiOb9cYHi
— Jamal Abdi (@jabdi) October 27, 2020
Revealingly, the Trump campaign has joined in with these attacks, amplifying the threats, harassment and lies through Re-Tweets and Shares on social media.
Donald Trump MEK Terrorists And The Troll Factory In Albania
It is common knowledge that Saudi Arabia’s Sheikh Mohammad Bin Salman (MBS) is seriously worried about the departure of Trump, opening the prospect of investigations into the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, ordered by him and carried out in the Saudi Embassy in Turkey. The Mojahedin-e-Khalq for their part are both worried about the future of their new benefactor (Saudi’s Mokhaberat after the fall of Saddam), and worried about their own future as pressure on Albania to give them free rein there may be lifted and the members would be subjected to the plan of deradicalization and integration as was planned by the Obama administration. This will place Maryam Rajavi in a particularly difficult position since she was deported from France and has been confined in Albania without the possibility of being granted a visa from any western countries.