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ASILA protest outside the Albanian immigration and border police

Members of the Association for the Support of Iranians Living in Albania (ASILA) held a demonstration outside the Albanian immigration and border Police in Tirana. The gathering was held on Thursday, December 1st, to protest against the arrest of six members of the association. The Iranian and Albanian members of Asila voiced their protest against the unreasoned detention of these people, expressing solidarity with them.

Hassan Heyrani, Mehdi Soleimani, Ali Hajari, Hassan Shahbaz, Ehsan Bidi and Gholamreza Shekari, defectors of the Mujahedin-e Khalq and members of ASILA have been kept in isolation in a camp in Kareç, the detention center of Albanian foreign nationals, without any reason to be mentioned by the Albanian immigration Police.

In this gathering that lasted for an hour, the director of Asila, Dr. Dashamir Mersuli called for the release of the association’s arrested members and also asked the Albanian Immigration Police to at least state the reason for imprisoning these people. “These Iranians have their own families here and some of them are going to have babies,” he said. “We are determined to pursue the reasons of such a decision asking for their release.”

The protesters, including the wives of four of the detained members, carried placards with photos of their husbands on, complaining about the unlawful detention of these former members of the MEK.

Lirije Abazi, the wife of Gholamreza Shekari, married a few months ago, said, “Regardless that we are married to Iranian men, we are Albanians who ask the Albanian immigration and border police to respond our appeal.”
Other members of the Asila Association, including Hamid Atabai, a recently escapee from the MEK’s camp located in Manez, in north of Tirana, asked for the release of their colleagues and friends in ASILA. “Our friends are not problem makers,” Atabay said. “They just work hard to provide their families.”

Rahman Mohammadian, who has lately published the book, “From Prison to Prison”, his memoirs of involvement in the MEK in Albanian language, called for liberation of his friends. He wants a reason for the arrest of his friends asking the Albanian authorities, “Isn’t it a hoax played by the MEK?” he asked. “That is why you have not given us any reason for their isolation.”

“We are here to express solidarity with our friends whose detention is unjust and unreasonable,” said Khalil Ansarian, MEK defector and a member of ASILA.

December 3, 2022 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization

Coronavirus reveals facts on the MEK

“Facts don’t cease to exist because they are ignored”
Aldous Huxley

The facts don’t change. When we ignore them, they still don’t change. People can change; numbers can go up; stalled projects can begin again. But ignoring the facts won`t help anything at all. In other word, it won`t change things to turn around. In fact, it can cause even greater disappointment. Documented facts about a terrorist cult-like organization like the Mujahedin Khalq (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi) not only can cause disappointment but also may undoubtedly cause disaster.
Ignoring the facts doesn’t work. Looking at them, thinking about them, working through them does. The MEK has a long record of violent acts against civilians out of its establishment and abusive attitudes against its own members. Ignoring the huge amounts of documentaries and testimonies on the MEK’s true face shows that the group is not what it claims to be.

Records on MEK’s notorious history including terrorist acts, money laundry, forced labor, forced celibacy, discrimination, sexual abuse, coercive mind control leading to self-immolations, mental and physical torture committed by the MEK leaders are all available for those who care about human rights and the welfare of those who are incarcerated by this violent group. Knowing the nature of this group will help us understand how to deal with it and how to eliminate extremism practiced by the group.

However, if the international human rights bodies prefer to ignore the facts on the MEK, they can just take a look at the group’s approach toward the global pandemic of the coronavirus. As it rapidly spreads across the world and particularly in Iran, the MEK opportunistically launches propaganda against the Iranian government. This is quiet expected from this group who tries to distort the facts about the approach of Islamic Republic toward Corona Virus. Even WHO has praised Iran for its effort toward this disease.
But, the enlightening point on the MEK’s approach towards this crucial situation is that the group still calls on Iranian people to get out in the streets to revolt against the government in Tehran. As a convention on the MEK propaganda media, last Wednesday of the Persian calendar – which is actually an ancient tradition to welcome the upcoming of the Spring– is supposed to turn into violent acts against the government.
Last Wednesday of the Persian calendar called in Persian language čahāršanbe suri is a fire festival with its special rituals such as gathering together, partying, jumping over fire, playing fireworks, eating sweets and dancing around the fire. See! The scene is somehow ready for an MEK agent to take a photo of such a celebration and pass it to the MEK propaganda. In its turn the group’s propaganda machine passes the photo on its outlets as an act of insurgency by the Iranian people!

Considering the especial conditions that the pandemic caused this year, the entire health organizations all over the world are asking people to stay home and isolate themselves for an extended period of time. However, the MEK asked Iranians to come out and turn”Chaharshanbeh Suri to an extensive front against the government”. The group’s website officially published a statement calling people to”make Chaharshanbeh Suri the battle against the cleric regime”.
Furthermore, the experience of such a tactic annually used by the MEK on the eve of the Persian New Year has indicated that the Iranian people celebrate this national celebration without even paying slightest attention to the call by MEK. But this year’s call for street clash just once more shed light on a very true nature of this violent group. Evidence shows that for this group Iranian lives are not important. They only seek their own interests.

By Mazda Parsi

April 7, 2020 0 comments

Missions of Nejat Society

Appeal of the Iranian Nejat Society CEO to awakened human consciences

A letter written by the CEO of the Iranian Nejat Society addressed to awakened human consciences has been sent to international and humanitarian organizations, such as different bodies of the UN, ICRC, AI, and HRW, as well as different institutes of the EU and EP, and also to international media. The text of the letter is as follows:

Ebrahim Khodabande

To awakened human consciences
I address you on behalf of thousands of suffering families of members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK, MKO, better known as the Rajavi cult) residing in a remote isolated camp in Albania, about the severe abuses of basic human rights there.

The MEK finished the process of transferring from Iraq to Albania in 2016. This relocation was done in the manner of a group movement under an agreement made in Geneva between the USA, the Albanian government, the UNHCR and the MEK. It was agreed that the UNHCR be responsible for the transfer and the USA pay the expenses.

Later it was discovered that this relocation was not carried out under the UN refugee regulations which specify that people should seek asylum individually, but rather as the transfer of an organization belonging to the leaders of the MEK. The consequence was that the individual members have no legal status and are therefore considered “stateless”.

The MEK operates as a destructive, mind control cult. The organization forbids love, familial relationships, voluntary exit, and contact with the outside world in particular with friends and families, having privacy of thoughts and lifestyle, criticism of the leader, and denies many other basic human rights to its members.
I have thousands of letters from the families of the members. They just want to have a simple contact with their loved ones trapped inside the cult. The cult leaders have denied them this right and the Albanian government and other related bodies do not show any cooperation. How should I answer these families, what should I say in response to them?

A considerable number of MEK members have left the cult and since they have no clear legal status and do not hold official ID documentation, they are left in a very tight situation in Albania. The UNHCR and the interior ministry of the Albanian government will not do anything for them since they do not recognize their presence in Albania as individuals and have accepted them as part of a group.

These individuals are forced to depend on the MEK for their subsistence, and of course the cult only pays their monthly aid provided they do not reveal the abuse of human rights inside the organization and the cult’s crimes and corruption. They take the freedom of these former members away and make any support conditional on them performing tasks, such as spying on others.

Is there anybody within the vast number of international and humanitarian organizations who will pay a little attention to these extreme violations of human rights? Is there anyone who will have something to say to these aged mothers and fathers to relieve their pain? Is there anything humane beyond the international policies and mutual interests or conflict of interests of different parties raised?

I am anxiously looking forward to your response and thank you in advance.

Ebrahim Khodabandeh
Nejat Society CEO
Tehran, Iran

March 1, 2020 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

MEK Members Terrified of Cult Pressure,”First admitted then denied”

Patrick Kingsley was one of the few foreigners who has been recently allowed to enter the headquarters of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MEK, MKO, PMOI, NCRI, the Cult of Rajavi). He is also one of the very few journalists who could manage to walk in the”Highly Secretive”base of the group near Tirana, Albania.

During his report on the tour of newly built town, he was given the opportunity to observe the life of a few thousands Iranians living under the cult-like system of the Rajavis even though the camp’s authorities have tried their best to manipulate his perception of the life inside the system.

The New York Times journalist tries to stay unbiased on what he has heard about the group’s cult-like nature. Seemingly he is not convinced by what he is shown in the group so he tends to complete his observations in the camp with interviewing former members outside the camp. He also does not restrict his investigations to those US army officials that the MEK authorities suggest.

Eventually he finds a lot of controversy between what he was told by the group’s men and what he was told by former members and Captain Matthew Woodside, a former naval reservist who oversaw US policy in the Iraqi camp between 2004 and 2005 and who”was not one of those whom the M.E.K. suggested”that he contacts.

Sharing parts of his new article for the NY Times on tweeter, Kingsley exposes more facts about the life inside the MEK camp in Manez, Albania. He tweets:

Naturally, they all denied most of what was said about the group. They said celibacy, forced divorce and rejection of family life is just a necessary part of overthrowing the Iranian government.
One admitted the self-criticism.
One admitted it, then corrected himself.
The rest denied it

Hope the one member is OK right now. He would be lucky to survive peer pressure for the mistake he has made in front of a foreigner. It is very probable that he would be punished for tarnishing the MEK’s face for a Western journalist.

Patrick Kingsley brings the testimonies of ten former members now live independently in Albania”each of whom described being brainwashed in a celibate life“.”In the group, they stated that romantic relationships and sexual thoughts were prohibited, family contact very limited and friendships discouraged”, he clarifies.

And, he verifies that self-criticism is part of the MEK’s ruling system.”All of them said they were forced to participate in self-criticism rituals, in which members confessed to their commanders about any sexual or dishonest thought they had,”he writes.

“The oddest moment came when I asked about Massoud Rajavi, who hasn’t been seen since 2003, and whom former members say is the subject of cult-like reverence,”Kingsley tweeted about this part of his report:
In particular, senior officials stumbled when asked where the group’s leader, Massoud Rajavi, who disappeared in 2003, was.

“Where is he? Said Ali Safavi, the group’s main representative in Washington.”Well, we can’t talk about it, it’s …”
He paused, staring at his feet.
Is he still alive? Is he in Albania?
“We can’t talk about it,”said Safavi, after being silent for a few seconds. of several seconds of silence.

Ali Safavi is one of the MEK’s propaganda commanders. He is the group’s figure who runs the group’s propaganda in Western media. The group authorities chose him to deal with the NY Times correspondent probably because of his long time experience in working with English language media.

Ali Safavi

However, Safavi was not able to answer the simplest question about the whereabouts of the group’s leader Massoud Rajavi.
This is the bottom line of the entire report. The MEK’s leader has been disappeared for near two decades. No one is allowed to ask about his whereabouts. No one is allowed to answer about his whereabouts. This is absolutely a cult-like system that no one should know that its everlasting leader is sick or dead or something.

February 23, 2020 1 comment

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

MEK and Persian Culture

Persian culture is one of the World’s oldest and richest cultures. The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group that make up over half the population of Iran. The Iranian nation inherited the tangible and intangible heritage of Persian culture. They cherish this culture and protect its symbols. They share a common cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language. According to Wikipedia, the term Persian is still historically used to designate the predominant population of the Iranian peoples living in the Iranian cultural continent.
However, Persian culture is even appreciated and practiced by Iranian immigrants all over the world. Most Iranians living abroad grow their children under the new culture while trying to keep them alert about their homeland culture.

Members of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization are sort of immigrants; exiles who have founded their own colony under the rule of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi’s cult of personality. They are considered as an opposition against the Iranian government by western states and so a bargaining chip or a proxy force in their policies towards Iran. The role of the MEK in the hostile policies against Iran changes from time to time.
Sometimes the shift in policies is spontaneous. At lightning speed, the State Department overturns an order prohibiting US diplomats from meeting controversial Iranian dissident groups including the MEK. But now the note is canceled. A directive sent to American diplomats on Sunday January 12th, was replaced the week-old directive. “The posts should welcome the opportunities to meet and learn from members of the Iranian diaspora community,” said the new directive. [1]
The cable went on to say that American diplomats should consider hosting members of the diaspora for “Persian cultural events”, while noting that “not all of the interests and objectives of Iranian opposition groups align with American political priorities”. [2] It seems that Iranian cultures matters a lot to the US politicians as Donald Trump also threated Iranians to attack their cultural sites!

“There are at least two problems with this reversal,” said Jarrett Blanc, a former Obama administration official who worked on Iranian politics. “The first is that the policy is wrong. American diplomats should not meet with MEK or its affiliates. They represent a dangerous cult. We must avoid all the mistakes of the Iraq war, including being deceived by so-called diaspora opposition unrelated to it. The second problem is that it reflects the utter incompetence and chaos of this administration’s policy making – send out an instruction and less than a week later cancel it. They just don’t know what they are doing. “. [3]

Let us believe that the US government considers the MEK’s interests and objectives against its political priorities, it should also consider that the MEK is not an appropriate representative for Persian Culture. The capacity of the group for representing the Persian culture is often limited to the events hold under the cover of Persian New Year’s celebration in which paid political figures together with Maryam Rajavi call for the overthrow of the Iranian government.

Speaking of Persian culture, it should not be forgotten that there is also another Persian Cultural tradition which is very important to the MEK leaders: Chaharshanbe Suri. It is an Iranian festival celebrated on the eve of the last Wednesday before Nowruz. Festival of Fire (Chaharshanbe Suri) is held on the last Wednesday of a year marking the arrival of spring. It is widely believed that Chaharshanbe Soori is a Zoroastrian celebration. People jump over the fire, sing, dance, play fireworks, eat sweets and nuts together with family, friends and neighbors. It is actually a national celebration before the great celebration of Nowruz. According to the Persian culture, on this day, the good prevails the evil and that is why people dance happily in their private gardens or in the streets.
In contrast, the last Wednesday of Persian year is an opportunity for the MEK to launch propaganda on its media outlets showing pictures of people’s celebrations around fire propagate them as acts of protest by Iranians against the government. Fire Festival in Iran, turns in to a protest against the regime in entire Iran. This is the caption of a photo of an ordinary fire festival on the last year’s Chaharshanbeh Suri in Iran: “Fire Festival in Iran, turns in to a protest against the regime in entire Iran”.

Fire Festival in Iran

How about Persian cultural events inside Camp Ashraf 3? Will the US politicians be able to get to know about Persian culture in the MEK headquarters? The answer can be found in the testimonies of former members. Persian culture is definitely a family-oriented culture. In the Persian culture, the family values are given a lot of prominence. All these celebrations are cherished in the center of family or with the company of friends. Happiness and peace are the mementos of these celebrations. But, in the MEK, family, friends and any other emotional relationships are forbidden. If the rank and file do have any family members inside the group, on the occasion of Nowruz, they are allowed to meet each other for a few minutes under the control of the group commanders in a public celebration organized by the group. Those who have no one inside the camp are never allowed to contact their families out of the group. Family is considered as enemy. The so-called celebration is overwhelmed with political and anti-Iran slogans, desires for the overthrow of the regime and speeches by the group leaders and their paid speakers to cheer up the crowd of manipulated individuals with their aggressive litterateur against Iranian nation.
The background of the links between the MEK and the US and Israel indicate that this relationship will mostly remain political and operational. The evidence is the assassination of the Iranian nuclear scientists that was carried out by the Israeli Mossad with the cooperation of the MEK operators. [4] [5]
The recent killing of the Iranian officials was done by the US government a few weeks ago. General Soleimani was bombed by the US drones under the direct order of Donald Trump who eventually promised to target the Persian cultural sites. The latest assassination took place last week. A commander of Iran’s revolutionary guard has been shot dead by masked assailants in front of his house in southwestern Iran.
“Of course, this latest killing also brings up the possibility of a foreign or external intelligence agency operation, though it remains speculation,” writes Tyler Durden of the Zerohedge. “One likely candidate alleged to enjoy US and Israeli covert backing is Mujahideen e Khalq (MEK), considered by Iran and many other countries as an active terrorist organization. Groups in Iran linked to the MEK have been previously known to be involved in political assassinations.” [6]
“Essentially a paramilitary cult devoted to overthrowing the Iranian government, the MEK is under the tight control and leadership of the charismatic opposition leader Maryam Rajavi, and is suspected of previously conducting brazen targeted killings of high level Iranian figures, especially nuclear scientists and engineers for years, likely at the bidding of foreign intelligence services,” he continues. “Until a few years ago the MEK was a designated terror group by the US State Department, though delisted under the Obama administration.” [7]
The US warmongers are more likely to be eager for the MEK’s violent background rather than its cultural aptitudes. As professional assassins brainwashed under a cult-like structure, the group is absolutely more useful in terrorist operations than in cultural events and eventually a favorable proxy force for the warmongers.
Mazda Parsi

References:
[1] Swan, Betsy & Banco, Erin & Suebsaeng, Asawin, Trump Admin Walks Back Anti-MEK Memo, the Daily Beast, January 13th , 2020.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-administration-walks-back-anti-mek-memo
[2] ibid
[3] ibid
[4] Cockburn, Patrick, Just who has been killing Iran’s nuclear scientists? , Independent, October 6th, 2013.
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/just-who-has-been-killing-irans-nuclear-scientists-8861232.html
[5] M. Hersh, Seymour, Our Men in Iran? , the New Yorker, April 5th , 2012
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/our-men-in-iran
[6] Durden, Tyler, IRGC Commander & “Soleimani Ally” Shot Dead by Masked Assassins on Motorcycle, zerohedge.com, January 22nd, 2020.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/key-soleimani-ally-irgc-commander-shot-dead-my-masked-assassins-motorcycle

February 10, 2020 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

MEK Overt and Covert Server of US Interests

For those who have been involved with the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi) or have studied its background from the early days of its foundation, it is clear that the group was founded as an anti-Imperialist movement against the Shah of Iran, in the 1960s.
“Anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist and anti-American, MEK fighters killed scores of the Shah’s police in often suicidal street battles during the 1970s”, wrote Arron Merat in the Guardian.

“The group targeted US-owned hotels, airlines and oil companies, and was responsible for the deaths of six Americans in Iran.”Death to America by blood and bonfire on the lips of every Muslim is the cry of the Iranian people,”went one of its most famous songs.”May America be annihilated.”

However, a U Turn in the MEK’s policies took place just after the fall of the group’s main logistical and financial sponsor, Saddam Hussein in 2003. Having found themselves helpless and desperate, the group leaders tried to find new sponsors. The sponsors were naturally supposed to be chosen among the enemies of Iranians. Definitely, the US was the most hostile state against the Iranian government and eventually the most potential sponsor for the MEK.

In order to gain the support of the US government the MEK leaders had to serve it in any way possible. Their services included bribe, spying and operational activities as of a proxy force and any other service that a mercenary force may offer.
The MEK’s evident role in spying on Iranian nuclear facilities, in the killing of Iranian nuclear scientists and other cross boarder operations inside Iran, which were revealed by numerous journalists and analysts, bring them to similar assumptions about any violent act against Iranians.
Max Perry of the Dissident Voice has also the matching analysis about the downing of the Ukranian plane. His theory compares the MEK with a Dominican Republic-based Cuban exile terrorist organization that associated with the US intelligence in the bombing of Cuban Airlines Flight 455 in 1976 which killed all 73 passengers and crew on board. This was part of the Operation Northwood of which”the planners concluded that such deceptive operations would shift U.S. public opinion unanimously against Cuba”.

https://dlb.nejatngo.org/Media/Interview/IMPAKT_Mohammadi_201807_p1.mp4

“It was also entirely plausible that U.S. special operations planners could have consulted the Northwoods playbook replacing Cuba with Iran and the right-wing gusanos who were to assist the staged attacks in Miami with the Iranian opposition group known as Mujahedin e-Khalq (MEK/People’s Mujahedin of Iran) to do the same in Tehran.,”writes Max Perry.”In July of last year, Trump’s personal lawyer and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani gave a paid speech at the cult-like group’s compound in Albania where he not only referred to the group as Iran’s”government-in-exile”but stated the U.S’s explicit intentions to use them for regime change in Iran. The MEK enjoys high level contacts in the Trump administration and the group was elated at his decision to murder Soleimani in Baghdad.”

“That the U.S. is still cozy with”former”terror groups like MEK seeking to repatriate is good reason to believe its use of militant exiles for covert operations like those from Havana has not been retired. If there were jumps to conclusions that proven serial liars could be looking for an excuse to stage an attack to lay the blame on Iran, it is only because the distinct probability was overwhelming.”Perry concludes.

Whether Perry’s hypothesis is correct or not, warmongers in the US government seems to be insolent enough to themselves to enjoy the services of a formerly terrorist designated group like the MEK. While the State Department ordered employees a few days after the assassination of General Soleimani not to meet with Iranian opposition groups including the MEK, it override the memo a few days later. The overt endorsement of MEK terrorists was covered by the Daily Beast.
“At whiplash speed, the State Department is walking back an order barring American diplomats from meeting with controversial Iranian dissident groups—including one close with Trump World allies and previously designated as a terror group, the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK),”reported the Daily Beast.”The initial memo, greenlit by a career State Department employee, angered Congressional Iran hawks. And the Department’s move to change its guidance has drawn cheers from them.”
The new directive of secretary Pompeo seeks to preserve the MEK as its spying and operational tool.”While the new memo did not mention MEK or the other groups, it said diplomats should simply”use good judgement when receiving invitations or meeting with opposition groups”and should raise questions and concerns with senior State officials––an apparent revocation of the order that they only take such meetings with Foggy Bottom’s explicit approval.”
Nevertheless, the covert and overt cooperation between the terrorist cult of the MEK and the US do not seem to be productive in the US policies towards Iran. Alexander B. Downes’s analysis on the options US may choose to topple the Iranian government in the Washington Post, clarifies that”Cooperation with local opposition groups”such as the MEK”is not a feasible option”.
Particularly about the MEK he writes,”The leading dissident organization, the Albania-based Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), has no presence in Iran, not to mention a highly dubious past.”

By Mazda Parsi

January 25, 2020 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Trump Administration and the MEK terrorists

Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani speaks in front of portraits of deceased members of the Iranian dissident group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK),

In the wake of the US assassination of Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani, an obscure group of Iranian dissidents once classified as a terrorist organisation by the US celebrated the news.

“In Tehran, Isfahan, Qom and Qaemshahr, among numerous other cities, MEK supporters were celebrating Soleimani’s death by throwing parties and handing out pastries,” the People’s Mujahideen of Iran tweeted, with pictures of jubilant supporters.

The MEK — officially the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, or the People’s Mujahideen of Iran in English — has waged war against the Islamist regime in Iran since it seized power in 1979. Formerly based in Iraq, the group is believed to have killed thousands of Iranians in terror attacks.

In Tehran, Isfahan, Qom and Qaemshahr, among numerous other cities, MEK supporters were celebrating Soleimani’s death by throwing parties and handing out pastries.#Iranhttps://t.co/Xp7v6kDX07

— People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) January 7, 2020

But far away from the battlefields of the Middle East, the MEK has also waged a campaign for influence in glossy functions at diplomatic events in western capitals, successfully cultivating powerful allies in western governments.

Among them are current and former officials in the top echelons of the Trump administration — including those who Trump regularly turns to advice on Iran, such as personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani.

Soleimani was “directly responsible for killing some of my MEK people,” Giuliani told The Daily Beast in an interview on Monday, making no attempt to disguise his closeness to the group.

“We don’t like him very much.”

And its not just Giuliani who has longstanding ties to the MEK.

In September, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attended an event on the fringes of the United Nations assembly in New York alongside the MEK.

Hawkish national security adviser John Bolton, who departed the administration in September after reportedly pushing for Trump to launch strikes against Iran, also had links to the MEK. Bolton has attended the group’s conferences, and long served as its most powerful advocate in Washington DC.

Eli Clifton, an expert on US foreign policy at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, told Business Insider that the MEK had long advocated the assassination of Iranian regime officials.

“The MEK clearly endorses the assassination of Iranian government officials and employees. In 2012, NBC News reported that the MEK was directly involved in the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists,” Clifton wrote in an email Wednesday.

The MEK emerged in opposition to the then ruler of Iran, the Shah, in the late 1960s, inspired by a blend of Marxist ideology and Islamic theology.

When Islamist rivals seized control of the country after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the MEK fled to neighboring Iraq, where it fought against Iran alongside then-president Saddam Hussein’s forces.

Defectors have claimed that the group seeks to brainwash members — forcing them to confess to sexual fantasies in bizarre public shaming rituals and to send away their children to be brought up by others. It has been described by several ex-members as a cult.

Several thousand MEK members live in a compound in Albania, where they reportedly spend their days on social media distributing anti-Iranian propaganda.

In Paris, where the MEK’s official headquarters is located, the group holds glitzy functions as it seeks to cultivate influential western officials. It has hired Iran hawks in Washington to speak at its events, paying them large speaking fees. It was eventually de-listed as a terror group by the US in 2012 following a long lobbying campaign.

Despite the rigid control it exerts over members, it has sought to portray itself as the only viable democratic alternative to the current Iranian regime.

“When the president’s personal attorney and former national security adviser have effectively endorsed the MEK as a legitimate opposition group and a viable government exile for Iran, it certainly raises serious questions about the extent to which the MEK is influencing the administration’s Iran policy,” Clifton told Business Insider.

The group’s activities in Europe have attracted the ire of Iran, with French officials in October 2018 accusing Iranian intelligence of being behind a plot to bomb a rally held by the MEK’s political arm in Paris. The rally was attended by Giuliani and Newt Gingrich, former House speaker and Trump ally.

And with the US now taking the hardline stance towards Iran it has long advocated, it will be likely seeking to consolidate its influence in Washington DC.

Tom Porter, Business Insider

January 11, 2020 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

After Soleimani’s Assassination, There Will Be No Regime Change in Tehran

Anyone who believes that President Trump’s order to illegally assassinate Quds Force leader Qassem Soleimani, Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and several more Iraqis, was an act of strength has not been properly paying attention. This is the latest in a series of stupid policy errors by this administration which have not only strengthened the hand of America’s enemies but have also now ensured that the rest of the world, with the exceptions of Israel and Saudi Arabia, now at best views the U.S. with mistrust, or at the very worst hate America more than any other country on earth. This is a remarkable achievement for a man who promised to end the “endless wars” and “drain the swamp.”

Trump started his presidency with the ambition of overturning the Obama administration’s achievements. However, he inherited a foreign policy already predicated on waging war and which was soon re-staffed and promoted by Republican warmongers. In this context, withdrawing unilaterally from the Iran nuclear deal might have appeared to be a strong-arm tactic to Trump, but to America’s allies in Europe it looked like a betrayal, and a slap in the face. Still, none were willing to come out on the side of Iran at that time. Even Russia and China were holding back at that stage. So, what were the steps in between which culminated in late December in an unprecedented four days of joint naval manoeuvres between Iran, China, and Russia in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Oman? What happened to embolden this trio to flex military muscle in the Middle East?

A review of these steps reveals that the blinkered aim of the Trump administration’s foreign policy to manufacture regime change against Iran by any means possible including all-out war has in fact resulted in the opposite result. Regime change is now in its coffin and the assassination of Soleimani is the last nail hammered in.

Instead of promoting freedom and democracy in the Middle East, American interference is destroying every possibility of ordinary people rising up and demanding change from their own governments. In Syria, the people rose up against President Bashar al-Assad because of genuine grievances against that regime. The outcome of U.S. support for Sunni extremists in Syria has been a swing from people supporting the American aim of ousting Assad to rallying behind their own terrible government to save them from the spread of Islamic fundamentalism. With an irony that can be lost on no one, authoritarian Russia and the theocracy in Iran are now allies of Syria in that struggle.

In another reckless act of overturning Obama’s legacy, the new Trump administration halted Hillary Clinton’s plan to de-radicalise the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) in Albania. Since then, American anti-Iran politicians have stuffed the MEK down the throats of the international community as the regime change opposition that will bring freedom and democracy to Iran. Since Iranians hate the MEK more than the current Islamic Republic, this has been a gift to the hard-liners in Iran. To quell every protest or demonstration since then, Iran’s security forces have only to claim that MEK are involved in inciting violence for the ordinary people to go home and announce their abhorrence of the MEK.

American actions are consolidating people around their own hated governments instead of helping them express their legitimate demands. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s response to the anti-government protests in Iran in November was to repeat false information published by the MEK about the death toll. When Pompeo retweets MEK propaganda it destroys any trust among Iranians that the U.S. has their interests in mind.

In another remarkable example of how Pompeo has frittered away American power and influence, just weeks ago, disgruntled Iraqi citizens were in the streets demonstrating against Iranian interference in their country. Instead of supporting them, Pompeo oversaw the U.S. bombing of Iraqi militia forces that were fighting against ISIS. The Iraqi people cannot take the U.S. side over this no matter how anti-Iran they are. If America had done nothing, said nothing, Iraqi people would still be in the street demonstrating against their own government. Instead, different Iraqis attacked the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Now, in a pivotal act of hubris, the illegal assassination of Soleimani and Iraqi militia leaders at an international airport not only allows Iran to describe the U.S. as a terrorist state, but has brought Iranians of every belief together to rally together to mourn a national hero, the man who saved Iran from ISIS.

But it would be a mistake to believe that the U.S.’s Middle East foreign policy mistakes only impacted that region. In 1981, France gifted the CIA some land to host the MEK outside Paris from where they could plan their armed resistance to the new regime. Although France did not use the MEK politically as America did, their presence was tolerated. Until, that is, MEK activities began to impact European security and democracy.

In 2017, John Bolton, just before he became Trump’s National Security Advisor, promised the MEK they would celebrate in Tehran before the 40th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution in February 2019. That did not happen, of course. But events subsequent to this promise certainly indicated there were already plans afoot to use the MEK to undermine European policy toward Iran. A bomb plot against the MEK in France was discovered by security forces in France and Belgium to have been a false-flag operation by the MEK used to blame and demonize Iran. After numerous acts of violence and confirmation that the MEK had funded Spain’s far-right Vox party in its EU election bid, several European countries, including Germany and the Netherlands as well as France and Belgium moved to expel MEK leaders, including leader Maryam Rajavi, to Albania.

In Albania, the MEK have caused multiple headaches for the government and the opposition there. The worst result of which has been the EU’s refusal to allow Albania to join the union. After kicking out the MEK, no European country would allow them to enter through the back door again.

Significantly, what these policy steps over time have revealed to America’s foes and her friends alike is that the U.S. cannot be trusted. The Trump administration has shown a reckless disregard for normal behavior in the international scene. It acts with callous cruelty and indifference against enemies and allies alike.

The unwanted assassination of Soleimani will result in tectonic shifts in the world order. No matter how hard mainstream media in the West works to normalize America’s actions, security and military experts the world over will have their own ideas about what the future holds.

Responsible Statecraft

January 9, 2020 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Assassinations Supporting MEK Sanctions – US obeys no laws

What comes next in the Middle East

Summary: Our brutal neo-colonial policy in the Middle East – without goals, reason, or even respect for our “allies” in the region – may be entering a new phase. Trump’s stupidity might start a disastrous war, but it was doomed to fail catastrophically. Eventually.

Before predictions, clearly see the present

When reading the news, remember that US government officials usually lie. As Daniel Larson explains in “Lying Us Into War With Iran.” Much of the coverage of these events by the mainstream media has reprinted US government propaganda. The NYT perfectly captures this folly by asking “can the United States maintain a cooperative security relationship with Iraq given the upheaval the assassination has provoked?” A more rational question is can the US treat its allies with respect, not as colonies and puppet regimes? They quote Richard N. Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations and a former American diplomat.

“One sure result of the U.S. strike is that the era of U.S.-Iraq cooperation is over. …The U.S. diplomatic & mil presence will end b/c Iraq asks us to depart or our presence is just a target or both. The result will be greater Iranian influence, terrorism and Iraqi infighting.”

This assumes that US influence leads to regional stability. History shows that to be delusionally false. The US requires its puppet regimes to act contrary to their people’s interests, which evaporates their legitimacy and leads to domestic instability. Even more delusional is this, by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

“We have every expectation that people, not only in Iraq but in Iran, will view the American action last night as giving them freedom.”

For an excellent analysis of the situation in Iraq by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies. Benjamin is the author of Blood on Our Hands: The American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq. Follow her on Twitter. Davies is the author of Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Follow him on Twitter.

Also see Mohammad Ali Shabani‘s “Donald Trump’s assassination of Qassem Suleimani will come back to haunt him.” He is a PhD student at Soas University of London, where he focuses on implications of the Shi’a ascent to power in Iraq.

“By 2014, when he successfully halted Islamic State’s attempt to overrun Iraq, Suleimani was being feted as a hero among Iraqis alongside the local commanders, including al-Muhandis. The same response was evident in Iran, where he quickly became a household name and was rumoured to be a potential future president – a trend strengthened by the Trump administration’s unilateral withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018.

“So the US has not merely killed an Iranian military commander but also a highly popular figure, viewed as a guardian of Iran even among secular-minded Iranians. And with the assassination of al-Muhandis, the Trump administration has put itself in the position of having killed the operational commander of a large branch of the Iraqi armed forces. …For all his crowing about the decisive blow dealt to an insolent enemy, Trump may be about to discover that the problem with martyrs is that they live forever.”

What will Iran do in response?

The news overflows with guessing by people without a clue. For a rare sensible analysis, see this by Scott Ritter: “Iranian Revenge Will Be A Dish Best Served Cold.” He is the author of 7 books; his most recent is Deal of the Century: How the Iranian Nuclear Agreement Was Won, Then Lost, and the Possible Consequences (2018).

The more likely consequences are that we are ejected from Iraq again, the Iraq – Iran alliance grows tighter, and that Iran’s regime grows stronger. I doubt anyone can predict the larger and longer-term responses. Those guessing about Iran’s response usually assume that its government will respond to popular pressure with a small but dramatic gesture. Or that they might act with cool rationality – playing the long game, using America’s aggressions to unify the region against its foreign infidel invaders.

Or this might be like July 1914, when decades of tensions unexpectedly ignite geopolitical fires that none can extinguish except with the blood of millions.

What would we do?

What would Americans do if treated by a superpower as we have treated Iran? Daniel Larison is one of the few to ask that question.

“Imagine how angrily we would respond if a foreign government assassinated a high-profile, well-liked military officer while he was traveling inside an allied country, and that might give us some idea of how Iranians perceive this attack. That matters because it means that there will be tremendous pressure on the Iranian government to respond to the attack, and it also means that there will be political support for retaliation. If the administration wanted to find a way to trigger a war with Iran that bolsters the Iranian government’s standing at home, this is how to do it.”

But that’s a tame perspective. Go back to the beginning. In 1953 the CIA’s Operation Ajax helped overthrow Iran’s elected government (Wikipedia) and installed a tyrant. The US government long denied it, admitting it in 2017. Of course, the people of Iran already knew; only Americans were still ignorant.

That tyrant remained in power with our support and his brutal secret police (SAVAK). He was ejected in a 1979 Revolution. We waged continuous war against Iran after their revolution. Justified by lies – such as claims that they were building nukes (Fear Iran’s nukes, coming very soon since 1984). We used these claims to justify economic warfare against them, assassinating their scientists, supporting insurgent terrorists (MEK), and probably more things not yet public.

Iran’s response to these attacks has been mild. They did push back to America’s occupation of Iraq, mildly compared to America’s military enforcement of its Monroe Doctrine. This points to the core aspect of this geopolitical struggle for control of the Middle East: our hypocrisy. No matter how often or brutally we attack Iran – who threatens only our imperial dreams – we see ourselves as the noble victims.

Imagine if the roles were reversed. How would America respond to a nation attacking them as we attacked Iran? Rivers of blood would flow.

A response to America’s imperial wars

We are bombing and killing people around the world 24-7, year after year. I worry that eventually we will kill one or more people whose relatives organize intelligently conducted terrorism against America. Not with political or monetary goals, just killing for revenge. Mindless killing, just as historians will see our operations around the world today. Imagine a 9/11 every month or so. Imagine copycats, dumb but numerous, doing similar operations – drawing on the millions of people we have angered.

Or something else will happen that is equally unexpected and catastrophic. I doubt we can contine our operations without some kind of bad ending for America.

“Sooner or later everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences.”
— Attributed to Robert Lewis Stevenson.

Other voices

This is a follow-up to yesterday’s important post: Let’s cheer another successful assassination!

How dare Iran do what America routinely does for the same reasons! See “Suleimani’s assassination and the muddled moralism behind it” by Robert Wright at NonZero (which has much interesting and provocative material).

About the legal doctrine used by America and Israel for its attacks: “Lies, the Bethlehem Doctrine, and the Illegal Murder of Soleimani” by former British diplomat Craig Murray.

Jeremy Scahill at The Intercept. He is an investigative reporter and author of two books, including Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield

“Trump campaigned on belligerence toward Iran and trashing the Obama-led Iran nuclear deal, and he has followed through on those threats, filling his administration with the most vile, hawkish figures in the U.S. national security establishment. …

“Much as the neoconservatives came to power in 2001 after the election of George W. Bush with the goal of regime change in Iraq, Trump in his bumbling way assembled a team of extremists who viewed him as their best chance of wiping the Islamic Republic of Iran off the map.

“While Barack Obama provided crucial military and intelligence support for Saudi Arabia’s scorched earth campaign in Yemen, which killed untold numbers of civilians, Trump escalated that mass murder in a blatant effort to draw Iran militarily into a conflict. That was the agenda of the gulf monarchies and Israel, and it coincided neatly with the neoconservative dreams of overthrowing the Iranian government.”

BY Fabiusmaximus.com

January 7, 2020 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

In the MEK’s black and white world, departure means expulsion

The “all-or-nothing” way of thinking is one of the very destructive thinking patterns that a person can have. This thinking pattern is also called “black and white thinking”. Thinking in black and white arranges the world into extremes: good and bad, yes and no.
It’s like seeing only in black and white and ignoring the shades of gray in between. This thinking pattern leads the person to absolutism. Absolutism refers to ideas, phrases and words that denote totality, either in magnitude or probability. Absolutist thoughts are unqualified by nuance and overlook the complexity of a given subject.
Those who are not with us are against us!
For absolutists, there is nothing more than two possible positions. They do not admit that a person or group can have a neutral stance or could disagree in part with their position without entirely opposing them. In the cults of personality such as the Mujahedin Khalq (MEK, MKO, PMOI, Cult of Rajavi), the absolute leader is the main person to coerce members into such a thinking pattern.
In the MEK, any voice of dissent is forbidden and eventually will be silenced by any means. Based on interviews that he made with former members of the MEK, Aron Merat wrote in the Guardian that “MEK commanders systematically abused members to silence dissent and prevent defections – using torture, solitary confinement, the confiscation of assets and the segregation of families to maintain control over members”.
Members of the MEK often undergo sever punishment as soon as they express their willingness to leave the group. As the former high ranking member of the group Saeed Shahsavandi told the BBC inside the MEK’s ruling system “people do not leave the group, but they are expelled from the group”. According to Shahsavandi, the organization do not tolerate any criticism. “Criticism and polyphonic ideas are not tolerated, so the dissident member is considered as traitor,” he says. “In such organizations, relationships are based on zero or one hundred, black or white, you are either a servant or a traitor.”
Absolutism of the MEK leaders explains why families of the MEK members are called mercenaries of the Iranian government just because they ask the international human rights bodies to aid them contact their children who are kept like hostages in the MEK.
As absolute powers of their ruling system, dictators suffer such personal disorder. Lack of balanced thinking make the MEK leaders fail to bring together the dichotomy of both positive and negative qualities of a phenomenon. Like other totalitarian leaders such as Stalin or Hitler, Massoud Rajavi is considered as a narcissistic personality. Narcissism is one of the popular causes of the all or nothing way of thinking.
A Narcissist devalues people, considers them worthless and thinks highly of them. Therefore his mind gradually adopts the all or nothing thinking. The narcissist thinks that things are either perfect or imperfect. Massoud Rajavi calls members as “unique gems” or “freedom fighters” as far as they obey his absolute power. As soon as a member decides to leave the group, he is labeled a “traitor” or “agent of the Iranian Intelligence”.
The duality of black and white thinking prevent the MEK leaders from realizing the truth because in reality most things can be approached from multiple perspectives. The fictional black and white world that the Rajavis have built inside their cult has a very destructive effect on the members’ lives. They are hardly ever capable of leaving the group in a normal process. There is an urgent need of human rights bodies to aid the release of the group members from the bars of the Cult of Rajavi.
Mazda Parsi

December 30, 2019 0 comments

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