++ An hour before the announcement from Lausanne on the result of the nuclear negotiations, Ramin Fakhari, an Iranian analyst, published an article analysing the situation. He concluded that irrelevant of the outcome – whether there is agreement or not and who names who to be the winner or loser – ensuring that there is one less nuclear bomb in the world, and reducing the savage effects of sanctions on the ordinary citizens of Iran is a victory for all the people of the world. The real winners are the people and the losers are Israel, the Saudis and the MEK.
++ Maryam Rajavi and the NCRI websites published statements in support of bombing Yemen, accusing the victims of these bombs of being “agents of the Iranian regime”. The critical Farsi Commentariat have denounced Rajavi for taking this cruel position at a time that the UN says this action is in violation of international law and has expressed deep concern for the lives of ordinary citizens there. Critics say that this is not the first time Rajavi has taken such an anti-human stance, and remind us of the MEK’s collusion with Saddam Hussein to kill their own people and their begging the Neocons to bomb their mothers’ and sisters’ homes in Iran. This is normal, they say, for Rajavi and the MEK.
++ This week the MEK has again asked to be armed in Iraq. Many critics ridiculed this, reminding the MEK that they are in the process of being expelled by the UN. Ehsan Bidi, who is in Tirana, goes into more detail about what is really in Massoud Rajavi’s mind. Bidi suggests that Rajavi is desperate to stop people being transferred to third countries – Albania, the US, Europe; he produces evidence of the ways the MEK is trying to prevent the UN from taking people to America. When Rajavi says “Iran wants to kill us, that’s why we need arms”, what he really wants, Bidi says, is a way to legitimize killing the residents of Camp Liberty. Rajavi even has people who will do this killing – bands related to the Saddamists and ISIS. Bidi then reflects on MEK history in this respect; whenever Rajavi announces that “Khamenei wants to kill us”, some weeks later a disaster strikes and several MEK are killed. This only happens to disaffected members not the commanders. There is clear danger that this will happen again soon. Bidi appeals to everyone to inform the authorities in their own countries and help prevent a tragedy from happening again.
++ The MEK published a video on its satellite and websites in reaction to an open letter by 80 ex members and critics addressed to the President of France asking him – as her host – to put pressure on Maryam Rajavi to release the people in Camp Liberty. The letter also emphasised the MEK’s threats to kill critics all over Europe, saying that the French should take action to stop this, not the potential victims. Ghorban Ali Hossein Nejad has examined the MEK’s video message and come to an interesting conclusion. He points out that Rajavi has not only backed down from his threats to kill his critics, but has now apologised for this. Hossein Nejad explains that this is clearly the result of France’s security services having a word with the leaders and telling them that incitement to murder is illegal in Europe. Rajavi has had to take his words back because clearly Europe is not Iraq.
In English:
++ In the week leading up to the historic Lausanne announcement, Paul Mulshine has written two articles in NJ.com about the MEK and America. The first ‘More on Senator Menendez’s favorite (ex?) terrorist group and the insanity of neocon policy in the Mideast’ criticizes efforts to push America into a war with Iran. He mentions Menendez and Bolton as paid advocates of the MEK position, saying “As part of that propaganda, we’re supposed to think it’s just peachy to support the MEK in its efforts to topple the Iranian government. Or in other words, we’re supposed to support a terrorist effort in the midst of a War on terrorism.” His second article, ‘The week the neocons jumped the shark’ attacks Bolton and the neocon agenda as a distraction saying “Then there was the piece by former UN ambassador John Bolton headlined “To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran.” It contained the usual cliches about weapons of mass destruction and the need to stop terrorism along with this proposition: “Such action should be combined with vigorous American support for Iran’s opposition, aimed at regime change in Tehran. In the past Bolton has identified the “opposition” as called Mojahedin-e-Khalq. This is a shadowy cult that makes the Scientologists look transparent by comparison. In the past MEK members have killed Americans in terror attacks. More recently they are seen as the likely suspects in the car-bombing of nuclear scientists in Tehran.”
++ In a bad week for the MEK, Jim Newell for Salon, also writes about another MEK paid advocate, this time on the Democrat side. In his article “Howard Dean’s Iran secret: “Famously dovish” Dem is paid shill for Iranian regime change group”, Newell says “Dean, along with the likes of John Bolton, Rudy Giuliani, Ed Rendell and other notables, has given paid speeches at MEK rallies. In the first term of the Obama administration, MEK’s allies launched a expensive P.R. effort to get the State Department to de-list MEK as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. (Anyone who lived in the D.C. metropolitan area between 2010 and 2012 will be familiar with a seemingly endless cycle of television ads calling for this.) The effort was successful: in September 2012, just before the election, the State Department de-listed MEK. It was a heavy, cynical lobbying effort that offered a real education in the how subjectively the government applies the term “terrorism” to suit its interests.” Newell comments sarcastically “Dean takes the same approach as Benjamin Netanyahu: suggesting that there is a “better deal” out there in which Iran eliminates every last trace of its nuclear infrastructure, reforms itself into the world’s number one protector of human rights, and abandons all of its regional interests. Perhaps, if John Kerry had the courage to twist a few more arms, he could even get Ayatollah Khameini and his regime to self-abdicate and put in place an American puppet government. How about… the MEK?”
April 3, 2015