The MEK is struggling to hold on to its own members, who have begun to defect in Tirana,Albania. Hundreds of members have walked out – complaining about the organisation’s rigid rules enforcing celibacy, and control over contact with family.
Widely regarded as a cult, the MEK was once designated as a terrorist organization by the US and UK, but its opposition to the Iranian government.
In May, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken banned Sali Berisha, former President of Albania, from entering the US on grounds of corruption. In a video speech, Berisha went on to defend himself. Remarkably, in the video he admits that he asked former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton to remove the MEK from the US terrorism list before he would accept the group in Albania. The State Department formally removed the MEK from the Foreign Terrorist List in September 2012. In May 2013, the first MEK members began arriving in Albania. Three tranches of ten million dollars were paid to the Albanian government. Some of which was intended to build an Institute for the De-Radicalisation of extremists, including the MEK. This was not established or created.
Leaked photo of MEK’s Albanian headquarters
As an organised crime group, the MEK lost no time in making itself at home in Albania – a country notorious for its three major mafia families and corrupt government and state institutions. The MEK bribed, intimidated and flouted its way into the Albanian system. This enabled the MEK to build a closed, military-style camp in which the enslaved members are held, and bend Albania’s foreign policy to its own agenda.
Meanwhile, after the MEK settled in Albania, Berisha and other politicians found lucrative work in advocating for the group. Berisha regularly spoke in the MEK rallies in Paris and, after Maryam Rajavi was expelled from the EU, in Albania. In 2019, Berisha boasted that by backing the MEK, he had chosen the right side.
It appears, however, that Secretary Blinken takes a different view of ‘the right side’ and has found Berisha on the wrong, corrupt, side.
The headquarters of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi) is called Camp Ashraf 3. The thought-provoking point about the newly-built camp is that it is very similar to the group’s headquarters in Iraq, Camp Ashraf, which was located in Diyala Province, about 120 kilometers west of the Iranian border and 60 kilometers north of Baghdad. As the group’s new base in the heart of Europe, in north of Tirana, Camp Ashraf 3 is still under construction.
However, the headquarters of the MEK in Albania is much smaller than the notorious Camp Ashraf in Iraq, which covered an area of about 50 km from the Diyala deserts in Iraqi territory. But Camp Ashraf 3 is built precisely by copying the buildings and monuments of Camp Ashraf.
The organization’s instructions to build the new camp parallel to Camp Ashraf must be based on two reasons. Firstly, it connotes the same atmosphere to members of the group and may be able to stop the impressions of failure and frustration from expulsion from Iraq. Secondly, it may create this mental orientation for disappointed and dissident members –whose number is increasingly on the rise—- that nothing has changed and they should remain at service of the group and its cause. Actually, according to the leaders, members should not expect any change!
A member of Mujahedin-e Khalgh walks in a street at the Ashraf-3 camp. Photo:Gent shkullaku/AFP
According to members who managed to escape from the MEK’s camp in Albania, the buildings of the camp are apparently interior and exterior like what it was in Camp Ashraf, Iraq. The names of the streets, the number of the rooms and the way they use the rooms and buildings, exactly the same way they were used in Camp Ashraf, Iraq.
The shut down of Camp Ashraf and the eventual expulsion of the MEK from Iraq is considered to be the most disappointing blow in the history of the Cult of Rajavi, following the long years of promising to overthrow the government in Tehran. The closure of Camp Ashraf marks the failure of the Rajavis to meet their promises and more importantly annihilation of lives of thousands of their members.
By the rise of defection from the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi), the group authorities make efforts to recruit new members. Old age and disability of the majority of members of the group, as well as their failure to recruit new members, leads leaders to ask help from human smugglers.
This has already happened in the MEK during the 1990s when human smugglers, linked with MEK recruiters, in the neighboring countries of Iran including Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates, have been tasked to handing over Iranian young immigrants who sought job. They smuggled them to Camp Ashraf in exchange for a significant amount of money for each person.
These people whose number eventually mounted to a hundred, were not informed about where they were supposed to go. With the promise of “working and residing in Europe”, they were tricked by smugglers. While they thought that they were going to Europe from Iraq, they would end up in Ashraf Camp. In Camp Ashraf there was no exit door. The newly-recruited members were forced to stay in the MEK for many years, which lasted over twenty years, and in some cases, they are still kept as hostages in the group.
Now, the MEK is encountered with the crisis of losing members, in Europe. This leads the leaders of the group to seek help from human smugglers and select their targets among Iranians who face severe financial issues and legal residence permits in Europe. The group prefers to recruit young refuge seekers in order to use their abilities for the most needed skills in the MEK, such as working in the cyber space.
These people are attracted to the organization with false promises of work, residence, and the right to live and stay in European countries, but in the first stage, they have to sign a commitment for at least three years of work in the group. Ultimately, they have to undergo the cult-like system of the group that manipulates and radicalizes them under a daily basis. Threats, fears and intimidation of the MEK cult is haunting the refuge seekers in Europe.
The Italian police are investigating an incidence of two Iranians with German passports who were intercepted smuggling 3 vials of Astrazenica COVID-19 vaccine from Italy into Albania. The tiny amount (about 18 doses) indicates this is for personal use by somebody. The mystery of why the men travelled from Germany to Albania via Italy can be easily unlocked with the key knowledge that both men are long-term members of the MEK. With this knowledge it is possible to suggest that the vaccine was destined for the MEK leader Maryam Rajavi who was expelled from the EU to Albania three years ago.
Rajavi leads a cult with around 2,000 members, who live in a closed camp west of Tirana. The members in Camp Ashraf 3 have suffered many deaths due to COVID. From the start of the pandemic, MEK refused entry to the local authorities and medial teams who wanted to help prevent the spread of the virus and offer medical support to the camp residents. Currently it is not certain whether the residents of the camp have had access to vaccines, and if they have, what type.
However, MEK leader Maryam Rajavi and her acolytes do not live in the camp. Rajavi prefers more luxurious surroundings. No doubt she explains the necessity for her separate accommodation as a security issue – a claim simultaneously and equally insulting to Albania’s security services and the credulity of the members. Since she lives separate from the members, it is possible that Rajavi has ordered the vaccine for herself and her acolytes because she believes this is the most effective against the virus. Possibly other smugglers have brought Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vials too.
Of course, in the big picture, the personal whims of a cult leader in Albania may not seem important. But the incidence of smuggling by MEK members is a reminder of the nature of this group and its activities beyond political posturing. Over the past four decades MEK has morphed from a military terrorist entity to an intelligence propaganda entity. But while MEK has been exposed for click farm activity and expensive propaganda rallies, by far its most important activity is criminal in nature; the MEK is a mafia-type criminal organisation.
The two men used to smuggle the vaccine are 69 and 73 years old. With German passports, they qualify for pensions and state support. Why would they take part in criminal activity? Italian investigators will probably discover that as members of the MEK they do not have proper addresses, but live communally in Germany. They almost certainly do not have bank accounts or any assets to pay any possible fines. These two men should be enjoying a relaxing retirement, not used for criminal activity which they will not personally gain from. Such members of MEK are not paid or rewarded for their services, they are simply two of the tens of slave members owned by Rajavi.
Rajavi long ago gave up any hope of actively bringing about change in Iran. Over time, the MEK has shrunk and shrunk through deaths and abandonment until, now there are fewer than two thousand members trapped in the camp in Albania. Most of these are old and ailing with no ambition to ‘overthrow the Iranian regime in its entirety’, as Rajavi boasts. Instead, the MEK’s speciality is as an organised crime group which survives through criminal activity and sells its expertise to Iran’s enemies.
MEK criminal activity includes: people trafficking; smuggling – money, passports, jewellery, goods and even vaccines; money laundry (Saudi money was channelled via the MEK to fund the right-wing VOX Party in Spain); foreign money paid to warmongers in America to promote Saudi, Israeli and Neocon agendas; corruption of politicians to promote the MEK brand; corruption of media outlets to suppress criticism of MEK; and corruption of various officials to not apply laws and turn a blind eye to MEK activity.
The MEK has been enabled to act with impunity because its anti-Iran messaging suits so many of Iran’s enemies. Italian investigators who trace the smuggled vaccine “vials of the ABW4330 series expiring in July 2021” back from these Iranian men, will no doubt uncover the source of MEK’s criminal involvement in this activity. Whether they will be minded to act on their findings will involve a lot more than straightforward policing.
When the MEK cult was transferred to Albania in 2016, the members were brought by the UNHCR without documentation. They were given $100 US and a piece of paper stating they were being moved ‘on humanitarian grounds’. On arrival in Tirana, the MEK leaders swapped the 100 US dollars for 100 Albanian Lek (worth approximately one dollar). The arrivals were not given ID papers but were left as undocumented foreigners. A new law, however, named ‘For Foreigners’ will soon rectify this situation.
The new legislation was approved by Albania’s Council of Ministers in December last year. It has now been reviewed by Albania’s Commission on European Integration, which announced that it meets EU requirements. According to Albanian officials, the legislation, which has been in the pipeline for a while, seeks to address shortcomings in the bureaucratic system so as to streamline documentation for various foreign individuals. Examples given are
“residence permits of persons without citizenship; residence permits for pensioners; residence permits for travelling employees, i.e. those foreign nationals working in different countries, not in an office or in an institution headquarters and whose work mostly involves travelling; and permits for those who use real estate owned by them in the Republic of Albania”.
The first Iranians to benefit from the new law are those who have rejected membership of the MEK but who, without proper documentation, have struggled to establish themselves in society. Journalist Gjergji Thanasi, who has followed the plight of these former MEK members for the past four years, explained the changes:
“previously there was a problem with getting various permits from different departments – residence, work, travel, etc. Now, foreigners will be issued with a single permit, a White Card, which gives them all the rights of Albanian citizenship, except the right to vote. After a while, they will be issued a Green Card which will entitle them to full citizenship rights.”
Hasan Heyrani, MKO former member in Tirana
For the former MEK members, this has been a welcome development. Hassan Heyrani said:
“I have been managing a coffee shop to make a living. But I can now incorporate my own business and buy property. This will make a huge difference in all our lives. The White Card will even allow us to arrange family reunions”.
The former members have applied for the single permit and have received registration numbers pending the issue of the White Cards in a month or two.
The new law also applies to the MEK members in Camp Ashraf 3 in Durres county. MEK leader Maryam Rajavi has already been reported to be working to hide this law from the members, and to take steps to mitigate its effects. Members are being asked to sign papers waiving any rights to independent life. They must swear an oath to identify as a member of the MEK cult rather than an individual with individual rights. The problem for Rajavi is that although she has already denied the members every one of the rights and freedoms contained in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, one of the principles set out by Article 30 in this document is that nobody can give away or waive their own rights and freedoms.
Heyrani anticipates this could be the end of the MEK as a cult.
“Once the members become aware that they can leave the organisation and enjoy the rights and benefits of Albanian citizenship, Rajavi’s hold over them will be broken”, he said. This author reminds readers that when the MEK were in Iraq, the members were also undocumented: “Members used organisational names rather than their own, to ‘lose their individuality’. Those who needed to travel used fake passports, or passports belonging to other members and supporters. The members were told that this was for security purposes since the Iranian government were spying on them. The real reason was to prevent members having valid documentation. Members were reminded that if they tried to leave the organisation, the punishment under Saddam Hussein for anyone without identity papers or a passport was an automatic 8 prison sentence as an illegal immigrant. That meant, most members would not dare leave. Several who leave did were imprisoned in Abu Ghraib prison under this law.”
Leaked photo of MEK’s Albanian headquarters
In Albania, Maryam Rajavi has benefitted from the notorious corruption in the country, from government down. She has benefitted from the tacit support of the CIA. This has allowed her to hold the members as undocumented slaves, totally dependent on the organisation for all their basic needs. People who managed to leave the cult have often struggled for some time to survive without the necessary documents that would allow them to work. In a matter of weeks, this situation will end. All the Iranians who came to Albania in 2016 will be able to register for the new documentation which will facilitate their break with the Rajavi cult and enable them to live freely and healthily in society.
A summary of the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 1: We are all born free. We all have our own thoughts and ideas and we should all be treated the same way.
Article 2: The rights in the UDHR belong to everyone, no matter who we are, where we’re from, or whatever we believe.
Article 3: We all have the right to life, and to live in freedom and safety.
Article 4: No one should be held as a slave, and no one has the right to treat anyone else as their slave.
Article 5: No one has the right to inflict torture, or to subject anyone else to cruel or inhuman treatment.
Article 6: We should all have the same level of legal protection whoever we are, and wherever in the world we are.
Article 7: The law is the same for everyone, and must treat us all equally.
Article 8: We should all have the right to legal support if we are treated unfairly.
Article 9: Nobody should be arrested, put in prison, or sent away from our country unless there is good reason to do so.
Article 10: Everyone accused of a crime has the right to a fair and public trial, and those that try us should be independent and not influenced by others.
Article 11: Everyone accused of a crime has the right to be considered innocent until they have fairly been proven to be guilty.
Article 12: Nobody has the right to enter our home, open our mail, or intrude on our families without good reason. We also have the right to be protected if someone tries to unfairly damage our reputation.
Article 13: We all have the right to move freely within our country, and to visit and leave other countries when we wish.
Article 14: If we are at risk of harm we have the right to go to another country to seek protection.
Article 15: We all have the right to be a citizen of a country and nobody should prevent us, without good reason, from being a citizen of another country if we wish.
Article 16: We should have the right to marry and have a family as soon as we’re legally old enough. Our ethnicity, nationality and religion should not stop us from being able to do this. Men and women have the same rights when they are married and also when they’re separated. We should never be forced to marry. The government has a responsibility to protect us and our family.
Article 17: Everyone has the right to own property, and no one has the right to take this away from us without a fair reason.
Article 18: Everyone has the freedom to think or believe what they want, including the right to religious belief. We have the right to change our beliefs or religion at any time, and the right to publicly or privately practise our chosen religion, alone or with others.
Article 19: Everyone has the right to their own opinions, and to be able to express them freely. We should have the right to share our ideas with who we want, and in whichever way we choose.
Article 20: We should all have the right to form groups and organise peaceful meetings. Nobody should be forced to belong to a group if they don’t want to.
Article 21: We all have the right to take part in our country’s political affairs either by freely choosing politicians to represent us, or by belonging to the government ourselves. Governments should be voted for by the public on a regular basis, and every person’s individual vote should be secret. Every individual vote should be worth the same.
Article 22: The society we live in should help every person develop to their best ability through access to work, involvement in cultural activity, and the right to social welfare. Every person in society should have the freedom to develop their personality with the support of the resources available in that country.
Article 23: We all have the right to employment, to be free to choose our work, and to be paid a fair salary that allows us to live and support our family. Everyone who does the same work should have the right to equal pay, without discrimination. We have the right to come together and form trade union groups to defend our interests as workers.
Article 24: Everyone has the right to rest and leisure time. There should be limits on working hours, and people should be able to take holidays with pay.
Article 25: We all have the right to enough food, clothing, housing and healthcare for ourselves and our families. We should have access to support if we are out of work, ill, elderly, disabled, widowed, or can’t earn a living for reasons outside of our control. An expectant mother and her baby should both receive extra care and support. All children should have the same rights when they are born.
Article 26: Everyone has the right to education. Primary schooling should be free. We should all be able to continue our studies as far as we wish. At school we should be helped to develop our talents, and be taught an understanding and respect for everyone’s human rights. We should also be taught to get on with others whatever their ethnicity, religion, or country they come from. Our parents have the right to choose what kind of school we go to.
Article 27: We all have the right to get involved in our community’s arts, music, literature and sciences, and the benefits they bring. If we are an artist, a musician, a writer or a scientist, our works should be protected and we should be able to benefit from them.
Article 28: We all have the right to live in a peaceful and orderly society so that these rights and freedoms can be protected, and these rights can be enjoyed in all other countries around the world.
Article 29: We have duties to the community we live in that should allow us to develop as fully as possible. The law should guarantee human rights and should allow everyone to enjoy the same mutual respect.
Article 30: No government, group or individual should act in a way that would destroy the rights and freedoms of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
They brought vaccines illegally to Albania, two Iranians with 18 doses were caught, SYRI.net reported:
The customs police authorities and the Italian Guardia di Finanza have seized 3 vials of the Astrazeneca vaccine that were being illegally transported from Italy to Albania. 3 vials of Astrazeneca that are equal to 18 doses of vaccine, were found in a refrigerator bag in the possession of two drivers with German documents, but of Iranian origin, who were traveling by ferry line from the port of Bari to Albania.
The Iranian drivers are Abdolrahim Orangi Asl and Ghassem Farhadi, 69 and 73 years old, who were traveling in a “Volvo” car on the “Aurelia” ferry to Durrës, ORA writes. The vials are of the ABW4330 series expiring in July 2021. [ note– Abdolrahim Orangi Asl is a veteran MEK supporter ]
An investigative process has been launched against this event. According to prosecutor Luisiana Divittorio, efforts are being made to find out what happened.
-Who ordered the vaccine?
-Who enabled their receipt?
-Why were they arriving in Albania transported by citizens of Iranian origin?
These questions are expected to be answered by Italian investigators. The serial number contained in each vial will help find their origin. The two drivers have been reported for robbery and illegal traffic and are being investigated at large. While three vials of Astrazeneca vaccine have been seized.
© SYRI.net – Translated by Nejat Society
An Albanian citizen who, on the condition of anonymity, wrote a brief description of his several-hours visit from the camp of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ the Cult of Rajavi) in Tirana, Albania:
I quickly wore my suit and my shoes and walked; we had to visit the camp of an opposition group of the Iranian government. Some people inside this city came to accompany us. They spoke English fairly well, but sometimes because of their age, they forgot some words and phrases.
However, we went with them and after leaving the city we reached a pretty farmland on the edge of Tirana. The cars stopped at the entrance door of a new camp, and an obese woman, who was wearing magnifying glasses and her face was full of wrinkles, came to us. The cars crossed a few niches and a new building and stopped at a meeting hall. Our group was welcomed by some of the Iranian group officials and we were led into the hall. I got into the hall behind them.
When I looked at the audience, I was a little surprised. The current population was men and women dressed in tidy clothes, but the average age was 60-70years.I could clearly see facial wrinkles, hairless heads, fallen shoulders, humpy waists, hearing aids in the ears and glasses on their eyes. Particularly when they laughed, spilled teeth of some of them drew my attention. In order to escape this old man’s space, I spoke slowly in the ears of the group’s head: “As you talk, I’m going to look around”. I went outside the hall to visit the complex.
One of the Iranians who was younger than the rest of them, came to accompany me. The construction was still underway, but as I turned my eyes, I saw no child, nor a teenager nor a girl nor a boy. I asked my companion who really was watching me, “Where are the little ones and the beautiful girls”? He told me: “we do not have children and we are all single here”. We decided to separate women from men and not to reproduce to fight better! I looked at him with amazement and I went to a hall where they were dormant and I looked at it from the window. Large photos of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi were installed in the wall. Wheelchairs, walkers, canes, pills and medications, diapers and … were things that at first glance drew attention. Some were sleeping on the beds, and some were sitting on their wheelchairs; several people were watching the television set on the wall. The man gently took my hand to the other side of the field. A little car crossed us, while a white-haired man was crying in the back seat. I asked him about the cause, He laughed and showed his head with his hand, and said, “It is a forgetful one …he had Alzheimer. He usually loses many times throughout the day. In Iraq he was a tank driver, but now …”
It was really getting interesting.
A little bit farther, several middle-aged women wearing head scarves were sitting on a bench under the sun light. Several of elderly people were walking and exercising near them. We walked toward them. My companion said something in Farsi to them and they all laughed. Their facial wrinkles were very noticeable. I asked one of these old women: where are your families? He answered with a loud voice: “My husband and I, 40 years ago, sent my only son to my father’s house in Tehran, saying that we were going to Iraq and returning soon. But the fight was long. My parents died, my husband died in Iraq and we buried him in the pearl cemetery. One of my relatives in Baghdad, died in Liberty, and I was recently discharged from the American Hospital in Tirana. I’ve been hospitalized for 3 months, and several parts of my body have been under surgery, I’ll probably die here as well. With saying that, tears flowed from her eyes.
Another lady sitting there stared at an unidentified point, and during my coming and going, there was no change in her condition. I asked again: Are you in contact with your family? Do you have a telephone connection? Will they come to visit you? She shook her head and said with the same loud voice that “we have nothing to do with anyone and anywhere at all”. The third woman with a rough voice said: “But I do not like it here, it’s like sadness of the world is all here, I was very much alive, but this last stroke…” And with her hand, she also pointed to her swollen leg and continued: “My brother’s son was with us in Iraq, but when we arrived, he fled with his friend and went to the UN refugee camp in Tirana.”
I got off of them and with using my phone’s internet I searched for the American Hospital inTirana, which she had told me. I found interesting things and it turned out that a large number of their patients are members of the same group who carry a lot of physical and psychological problems.
During the time that was left, I visited the area and several buildings. There was no sign of laugh and hope in the faces. All the people were mournful, depressed like they are waiting for their death. After about an hour I returned to the group. The tour was almost over. The people around the visitors were slightly different from the members I saw; they were a bit younger than people I’ve seen.
Of course, this was sort of a show that the organization had arranged for us. Then they took us to the hall, where almost 100 people attended. Some of the exciting musicals that they called revolutionaries were played, so that everyone in the hall was even excited. Even a few elderly people were very emotional. This condition reminded me of the survivors and veterans of World War II camp.
On the way back, I said my own impression of what I had seen at Camp Tirana and the plight of 2,500 people living with them, and I also said that in my opinion there is only one description for that place and that is a “nursing home”, perhaps the largest nursing home in the world. I would certainly be sending a Guinness Representative here for the global registration if I can. One of my companions listened to me and asked: “Is making the hearts of these old men and women happy a bad thing??You think that the money spent on them, is for them to fight? no, it’s just to keep them alive. Behold! Here is a faraway exile.”
When the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi) was first relocated in Albanian territory in 2013, public opinion was instigated about the group. Rajavi’s cult was perhaps the first organization that had entered the country as a refugee, and was able to take up a place for the deployment of its members, from the very beginning. They had some special issues unrelated to normal refugees such as restrictions on cross-party visits to the city, restrictions on contacts with people outside their camps, uniformed clothing, the absence of any children among 2,000 men and women and etc…
By passing time, a number of members of the group left the group. The number of defectors has mounted to over 500 to this date. The disclosures on the human rights abuses inside the MEK that were made by former members and the fact that the group was listed as a terrorist organization by the European Union and the US Department of State, were was the reasons of the Albanian people’s cautiousness towards the Cult of Rajavi.
Besides, Americans’ support for the relocation of MEK members and the pressure on the Albanian government to receive members of the group, ultimately raised questions for the people of the country. Questions that were drawn to reports in Albanian newspapers and Internet websites, such as why these people were expelled from Iraq? Why does America act as a supporter of this group to resettle them? And if this group claims to fight against the Iranian regime, why they will not continue this fight in their country or around the Iranian borders?
The clashes of members of the MEK with defectors in the streets and daily news of the death of members of the group in the so-called Camp Ashraf three, increased the sense of danger regarding the group’s presence for the people Albania.
With the rise in the demands and questions by the people, which pushed the Albanian government to respond especially to the media, the group’s leaders began to take actions to reduce the concerns. These actions began with news and articles published in some Albanian media. Also, the group’s plans for communicating with Albanian people included the invitation of journalists and groups to have limited and controlled visit of their camp, free medical services to neighbors of the camp in Manez and providing a small financial assistance for certain people. This, of-course added other questions to the previous questions: What such refugee groups have such facilities or why and how do they provide such services?!
Under the orders of the leaders of the MEK, there were other activities to reduce the complication of the agenda, including the teaching of Albanian language to some members of the group in order to connect with people in the society as a direct advertising space to show off the group as an innocent entity to Albanian people.
However, with all the efforts of the MEK –which was like an operation for the group in Albania– a sense of distrust and danger was left for the people of this country about the presence of this formerly designated terrorist group with a dark background of terrorist acts and cult-like violence cult. They began to express concern at the stage of political demands to the Albanian government. In fact, today, the request for the expulsion of the members of the Cult of Rajavi from the country, along with demands such as political, economic and social problems of the people, are demanded from the government and the parliament of Albania.
In another words, the same fate that a decade after the collapse of Saddam Hussein happened to the MEK in Iraq, is waiting the group in Albania. The experience has shown that the awareness of people and then their demands to expel this intruder from their soil, as it happened in Iraq, will leave no other way for the Albanian government than the expulsion of the MEK
But this time, if the leaders of the organization are forced to relocate, it can be said with certainty that they will sign the decree of the complete collapse of their organization, because the experience of the other members will not allow them to once again decipher, deceive and resort to another grouping. This time we have to wait for the defection of the majority of the rank and file of the group in Albania, which means the loss of about two thousand forces of the cult of Rajavi.
Nejat Bloggers
“The Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi) are skilled manipulators of public opinion”, according to the RAND report.
Assassinations of the American military advisers and civilians in Tehran in 1970s, the statements and declarations of the group about assassinations and sabotage in various cities of Iran in Mujahed journal during the 1980s and 90s, the group’s military operations against Iraqi Kurds and Shiites and its cross-border operations against their own Iranian fellow countrymen were all as fuel for the group’s propaganda machine.
Mojahed Magazine – Statement of the MEK on the assassination of Brigadier General Harold Price
Mojahed Magazine – on the assassination of civilians in Iran
However, many of these media show offs, which Indeed, the MEK are very skilled in it, later turned out to be counterproductive. They were actually presented as the evidences of their crimes. For example, the content in the Mujahed journal on the assassination of American citizens was one of the most important documents that were strongly denied by the MEK during the years that the group was listed as a terrorist organization by the US State Department.
The terrorist history of the MEK in Iran and the genocide of nearly 12,000 people in the streets of Iran were among the documents that MEK leaders attempted to deny, while the names, specifications, methods of assassination and … of each of the victims was detailed in The Mujahed journals of the 1980s. Mujahed journal was the official publication of the MEK.
During the years of the presence of the MEK in Iraq, there was always a headquarters in the suburb of Paris, Auver sur d’Oise which provided the media with a very visible and playable appearance. Its mission was commuting in the corridors of the European parliament and lobbying for the MEK, and particularly communicating the Western media.
Agents of the MEK, with their traditional ways, linked with Western media secretaries and journalists, and, while paying bribes in the form of fixed and monthly wages, demanded from the media connoisseurs to portrait the MEK as a democratic and freedom-loving group in Western media.
The same media propaganda has given rise to the opportunity and dare to put the issue of the claim of the MEK as the “alternative” to the Islamic Republic of Iran. However, the agenda was hardly ever covered in the media.
The group continued to use the capacity of Western media until it was entirely expelled from Iraq and relocated to Albania. With arriving in Albania, very soon, it became a very interesting subject for the same Western media, given that the view of the MEK forces were no longer inside the walls of Ashraf and in the deserts of Iraq and transmitted to the eyes of the European media.
In fact, the media could not publish the fictitious and custom reports fabricated by the MEK, because they were in Europe and before the eyes of thousands of cameras and Medias. Spreading fake news about the MEK would knockout the media.
Besides, the Cult of Rajavi turned into something stimulating with all controversial facts about human rights violations committed inside it. The presence of a large number of men and women together, without any marriage between them, without being a child among them, and other issues, such as frequent escape of members could all be hot topics of news reports. These issues made it possible for actual reporters to get interested in the cult-like group, and forced the organization to write a statement about it, and even, in some cases, attack reporters and certain Western media accusing them of being the agents of the Islamic Republic.
For example, The SPIEGEL’s report on the MEK and its defectors, the BBC report of the Iranian war prisoners who were jailed in the MEK or the lack of media coverage of the group’s un-crowded demonstrations in European cities, show that the MEK has lost the propaganda battle. The testimonies of hundreds former members of the group, now living in Europe has completely undermined the focus of the MEK in the media.
Meanwhile, the media’s progress towards the issues surrounding the MEK and dissemination of information on compulsory maintenance and slavery of about 2,000 people in Camp Ashraf 3 in Manez, Albania is the group’s problem of every day. This will get close to many other less-known dimensions of the MEK atrocities towards its own rank and file.
