Maryam Rajavi, countdown of her rule and Ashraf
Mujahedin Khalq Declining
Facebook has taken down a number of “deceptive campaigns” and networks including one from Albania.
In a statement published on their website, Facebook said they had investigated and disrupted a “long-running operation from Albania that targeted primarily Iran.”
They observed that while the network had limited success in gaining any kind of meaningful audience, it was run by “what appears to be a tightly organized troll farm linked to an exiled militant opposition group from Iran, Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK).”
During March alone, they removed 128 accounts, 41 pages, 21 groups, and 146 Instagram accounts based in the country. They had some 121,000 combined followers.
Facebook said these accounts were targeting “global audiences including Iran.”
“The network violated our policy against foreign interference which is coordinated inauthentic behavior on behalf of a foreign entity,” they wrote in their in-depth report.
As a part of their investigation into the network, Facebook said they found “three separate clusters of activity” that included the consistent and long-running connection between fake and authentic accounts of MEK individuals and pages, all of which were operating from within Albania.
They said the network was most active in 2017 but experienced a spike in the second half of 2020. Despite posting at “high volumes”, they mostly failed to gain a following.
“This campaign appeared to operate according to a shift pattern on Central European Time with a dip in activity in the early afternoon consistent with a lunch break, and a nearly complete pause overnight.
The individuals involved posted MEK-related content on their, and others posts. They included links to international media sites and to sites affiliated with the MEK. Facebook found that they exclusively talked about Iran and “routinely praised the activity of MEK and its leaders and criticized the Iranian government.”
In terms of the technical infrastructure, Facebook said most accounts were run from Albania who shared the same network. This meant the same individual could run muliple accounts. Facebook said these were “some of the hallmarks of a so-called troll farm”.
The report said that many of the accounts used pictures of deceased dissidents, Iranian celebrities, models, and even children. Some had even used photos that appeared to be generated using machine learning techniques.
It was noted that the operation put significant effort into driving traffic to sites run by or associated with MEK including their official website and other sites linked to the organization.
The National Council for Resistance in Iran, an organization that includes MEK, issued a statement to the media denying that any accounts affiliated with MEK have been removed. They also denied that there was a troll farm in Albania affiliated with them in any way.
In 2019, an Exit was able to visit the MEK compound in Manez near Durres. You can read the account of the visit here.
by Alice Taylor – exit.al
SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook said Tuesday it has removed hundreds of fake accounts linked to an Iranian exile group and a troll farm in Albania.
The accounts posted content critical of Iran’s government and supportive of Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, a dissident group known as MEK. In many cases, the Facebook and Instagram accounts used fake profile names and photos.
![MEK troll farm in Albania](https://www.nejatngo.org/en/wp-content/uploads/MKO_Albania_44.jpg)
Facebook FB, -0.86% determined the accounts were being run from a single location in Albania by a group of individuals working on behalf of MEK. Facebook found other telltale clues suggesting a so-called troll farm, in which workers are paid to post content, often misinformation, to social media.
For one, researchers found that the activity seemed to follow the central European workday, with posts picking up after 9 a.m., slowing down at the end of the day, and with a noticeable pause at lunch time.
“Even trolls need to eat,” Ben Nimmo, who leads Facebook’s global threat intelligence operation, told reporters on a conference call Tuesday.
MEK is a leading group opposing the Iranian government. It killed Americans before the 1979 Islamic Revolution and was labeled as a terrorist organization by the State Department until 2012. Nevertheless, U.S. politicians from both parties including Rudy Giuliani and Newt Gingrich have given paid speeches to MEK in the past.
The network of fake accounts was most active in 2017 and again in late 2020, Facebook said. In all, more than 300 accounts, pages and groups on Facebook and Instagram were removed as part of the company’s action. Around 112,000 people followed one or more of the Instagram accounts.
In some cases, the fake accounts used photos of Iranian celebrities or deceased dissidents. A small number of the more recent Instagram accounts appear to have used profile pictures that were computer generated.
Facebook has removed hundreds of fake accounts linked to an Iranian exile group and a troll farm in Albania.
The accounts posted content critical of Iran’s government and supportive of Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, a dissident group known as MEK. In many cases, the Facebook and Instagram accounts used fake profile names and photos.
Facebook determined the accounts were being run from a single location in Albania by a group working on behalf of MEK.
![MEK Troll factory in Albania](https://www.nejatngo.org/sq/wp-content/uploads/blank.gif)
MEK members working in the ‘ troll factory’ in Manez Camp, Albania
Facebook found other telltale clues suggesting a troll farm, in which workers are paid to post content, often misinformation, to social media.
For one, researchers found that the activity seemed to follow the central European workday, with posts picking up after 9am, slowing down at the end of the day, and with a noticeable pause at lunchtime.
MEK is a leading group opposing the Iranian government. It killed Americans before the 1979 Islamic Revolution and was labelled as a terrorist organisation by the US State Department until 2012.
The network of fake accounts was most active in 2017 and again in late 2020, Facebook said. In all, more than 300 accounts, pages and groups on Facebook and Instagram were removed as part of the company’s action.
About 112,000 people followed one or more of the Instagram accounts.
7news.com
led by Maryam Rajavi, the Organization (MKO) is going through a very difficult situation that can be called the post-Trump period. On the other hand, the Corona virus is killing the members of this group one after another, while the wishes of Maryam Rajavi, John Bolton and their former leader Donald Trump, to celebrate the overthrow of the Iranian government in Tehran’s Azadi Square have faded.
With rising of criticism and dissatisfaction among the MKO members concerning its leadership, a number of them have recently split from the group; an issue that has been admitted by the MKO ringleaders.
The group’s commander knows that the situation differs from what they experienced in in Iraq, where they were supported for many years by Saddam Hussein’s regime. They know very well that space is much freer in Albania, and they cannot control their members as easily as they did in Iraq. The issue of controlling the members who lived in this dark tunnel for 40 years and are now seeking freedom and exit has become a problem for Maryam Rajavi and her companions.
Therefore, the continuous contradictions and the gradual death that has overshadowed Rajavi’s group, has entered its final stage with the collapse of Trump. Maryam Rajavi is well aware that the policy of deception, lying and brainwashing, which were carried out by her missing husband and then by herself is no longer useful to persuade the members of the group to stay.
Rajavi sought to prevent separation of the group’s members by this deception that the government in Iran would be overthrown by entering of Trump to the White House. She had promised her members that this goal would be achieved if they used all their best. In the same way, Rajavi’s husband used to force the members to work eighteen hours a day in order to deprive them of the opportunity to think about their future.
At the end, nothing new was happened. The analysis and prediction of Maryam Rajavi and some of her American supporters was nothing but an illusion. For this reason, the leadership of this Iranian group has difficulty in convincing its members to stay. In the time of Saddam Hussein and with his support for Massoud Rajavi, members could be somehow controlled, but now it is very difficult for Rajavi to act in the heart of Europe, and to be able to deceive the members of the group as before.
By Ahmad Jafar Alsaedi – Translated by Habilian
Among the many indicators of misdirection in the Trump administration’s policy toward Iran, one of the clearest was the fondness for the cult-cum-terrorist group known as the Mujahedin-e-Khalq or MKO.
For years, the group was designated a terrorist organization by the US State Department. But after an aggressive and well-funded lobbying campaign supported by a bipartisan cast of high-profile former public officials, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced in September 2012 that the group would be removed from the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations.
However, in the State Department’s briefing on delisting of the MKO, a senior State Department official asserts that the Department does not overlook or forget the MKO’s past acts of terrorism, including its involvement in the killing of US citizens in Iran in the 1970s and an attack on US soil in 1992. He also pointed out that the Department has “serious concerns” about the MKO as an organization, particularly with regard to allegations of abuse committed against its own members.
The MKO’s worrisome track record has not deterred prominent Americans from endorsing the organization. In the months preceding the State Department’s decision to delist the MKO, dozens of well-known advocates—primarily but not exclusively conservatives—lobbied on behalf of the group. Vocal supporters included former CIA directors R. James Woolsey Jr. and Porter Goss, former FBI director Louis J. Freeh, as well as Tom Ridge and Michael Mukasey, both cabinet secretaries in George W. Bush’s administration. Other proponents included former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and the late Senator John McCain.
![MardomTV](https://www.nejatngo.org/en/wp-content/uploads/MardomTV-Debate-2020.jpg)
Ties to the Trump administration
The MKO’s close ties to high-profile figures were clear after the election of Donald Trump in November 2016. The group saw Trump’s election as an opportunity to significantly influence US policy toward Iran.
On January 9, 2017, just days before Trump took office, a bipartisan group of 20 former US officials published a letter to Trump urging him to open a strategic dialog with the MKO. They reprinted a letter they published in 2015, calling much more firmly for a US-MKO strategic relationship.
In the following, we will take a look at the positions of several people close to Donald Trump who are among the supporters of the MKO in the United States.
John Bolton
John Bolton was Donald Trump’s third national security adviser. During the 2016 election campaign, Bolton broke with neoconservative pundits like Robert Kagan and Bill Kristol in praising Donald Trump’s foreign policy.
There have been quite a few former officials, politicians, and retired military officers that have been cheerleading for the MKO over the last few years, but Bolton was one of their oldest and most consistent American supporters. “Bolton probably sees the MKO as a fellow traveler in the drive for regime change in Iran,” said Cliff Kupchan, chairman and Iran expert at Eurasia Group.
According to The Christian Science Monitor, Bolton along with Patrick Kennedy, Rudy Giuliani, and Michael Steele have all received handsome speaking fees in the past from MKO-affiliated organizations. They were among a gaggle of former US officials, who lobbied the US hard in recent years to take the MKO off the State Department terrorist list. MKO expert Joanne Stocker asserts that the MKO likely paid Bolton at least $180k in “speaker fees,” making him more a lobbyist than a statesman.
Iran hawk Bolton admits receiving ‘tens of thousands of dollars’ from MKO
Iran hawk Bolton admits receiving ‘tens of thousands of dollars’ from MKO
Former US national security advisor John Bolton has admitted to receiving tens of thousands of dollars from the anti-Iran terrorist cult of Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO).
Rudy Giuliani
The former mayor of New York City was a vocal supporter of Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, backing up his radical talking points, like the claim that President Barack Obama “founded ISIS.”
Giuliani was believed to be a likely pick for secretary of state in the Trump administration. However, on December 9, 2016, Trump announced that Giuliani had removed his name from consideration for any Cabinet post. On January 12, 2017, President-elect Trump named Giuliani his informal cybersecurity adviser.
For years, Giuliani has been one of the most prominent American officials to advocate on behalf of the MKO. The group has paid Giuliani handsomely for years—$20,000 or more, and possibly a lot more—for brief appearances before the group and for lobbying to have it removed from the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO), which occurred in 2012. A Treasury Department investigation in 2012 examined whether speaking fees paid by several MKO front groups to a long list of US politicians, including Giuliani, violated laws on Americans receiving money from designated terrorist organizations.
Newt Gingrich
The former speaker of the US House of Representatives and unsuccessful GOP presidential candidate was widely considered to be a potential running mate for Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, for which he reportedly actively lobbied the real estate mogul.
Gingrich supported Trump more quickly than many other establishment Republicans. After having consulted for Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, Gingrich encouraged his fellow Republicans to unify behind Trump, who had by then become the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Gingrich reportedly figured among Trump’s final three choices to be his running mate; the position ultimately went to Governor of Indiana Mike Pence. Following Trump’s victory in the presidential election, speculation arose concerning Gingrich as a possible secretary of state, or chief of staff, or advisor. Eventually, Gingrich announced that he would not be serving in the cabinet.
Gingrich has been especially enthusiastic about the MKO over the years, describing it as the vanguard of “a massive worldwide movement for liberty in Iran.” In 2017, Gingrich showed up along with former Democratic senator and former vice president nominee Joe Lieberman at a conference in Paris to laud the MKO. After speaking at another conference organized by the MKO, Gingrich said of them, the group “is clearly the largest resistance organization and deserves respect.”
Elaine Chao
The Donald Trump secretary of transportation spoke before an MKO conference in 2015 in Paris. She also had a seat next to Maryam Rajavi, the “president-elect” of the so-called National Council of Resistance of Iran, the political arm of the MKO. She also received a $50,000 honorarium from the MKO-associated Alliance for Public Awareness, according to a report she filed with the US Office of Government Ethics. Chao received another $17,500 honorarium for a March 2016 speech she gave to the Iranian-American Cultural Association of Missouri, which MKO opponents also link to the group.
The Department of Transportation said in a statement that Chao has a “strong record of speaking out in support of democracy and women’s rights in the Middle East,” but “has not spoken to MKO events.”
Michele Bachmann
The former member of Congress from Minnesota and founder of the House Tea Party Caucus was a vocal supporter of Donald Trump. In an interview with SiriusXM Progress, Bachmann, who serves on Donald Trump’s evangelical advisory board, described Trump as a “committed believer” of Jesus Christ and a “man of faith” who has “asked God for help and wisdom.”
Bachmann is a major supporter of the MKO. On November 17, 2010, she appeared at a press conference at a Freedom Watch symposium aimed at promoting regime change in Iran through military intervention and direct US support for the MKO. At the event, Bachmann voiced her support for the MKO, asking that they be removed from the US State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
Jo Lieberman
Following his retirement from the Senate in 2013, Lieberman became senior counsel at Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman, a law firm in New York City whose notable clients include Donald Trump. In early 2017, Lieberman introduced President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee as Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension committee. On May 17, 2017, Lieberman was interviewed by President Donald Trump for the position of FBI Director, to replace recently fired James Comey.
On January 9, 2017, in a letter to Trump, the former Sen. Joe Lieberman along with other former officeholders, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and retired Army Gen. Hugh Shelton, wrote a letter to the incoming president and urged him to work with the so-called National Council of Resistance of Iran. In December 2016, Lieberman also appeared at an event at the Capitol Hill organized by the MKO. At the event, Lieberman said the goal of increased pressure on Iran would be to elicit concessions from Iran by causing them to “begin to wonder about the survival of the regime.”
John Ashcroft
The former US attorney general endorsed Trump in September 2017, saying that he offers a new hope for the American people.
Ashcroft was a passionate supporter of the MKO when he was in the Senate. In December 1999, the US Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) agents arrested Mahnaz Samadi, a leading spokeswoman for the MKO, at the Canadian border. Hearing about the case from his constituents, the then Missouri Senator comes to the rescue and writes a letter on May 10, 2000 to Attorney General Janet Reno opposing Samadi’s arrest. In his letter, he calls her a “highly regarded human-rights activist.”
Ken Blackwell
The former mayor of Cincinnati and the Ohio State Treasurer and Secretary of State led appointment selections for positions involving domestic issues during the presidential transition of Donald Trump. He has defended his work on Trump’s Election Integrity Commission, and described Trump as “a transactional person.”
While describing the MKO as “The main Iranian opposition group,” “representatives of a moderate interpretation of Islam,” Blackwell has called the group’s ringleader “a devout and profoundly anti-fundamentalist Muslim woman leader.” Attending the annual rally of the MKO in Paris, Ken Blackwell tweeted a photo of himself and Gingrich at the gathering on July 9, 2016.
Clare Lopez
During the 2016 election campaign race and after Donald Trump won the GOP nomination, the right-wing conspiracy theorist Clare Lopez backed some of his misleading campaign claims, like that the United States paid a ransom to Iran for the release of US citizens. Since Trump’s election, transition team insiders had reported that Lopez was in consideration for deputy national security advisor in the Trump White House. Since Trump took office, Lopez proved a reliable ally.
Clare Lopez is a tough supporter of the MKO and has described this terrorist group as “the largest, the oldest, the best organized, the most dedicated of Iranian democratic opposition,” admitting that she already had participated in their annual rallies in Paris. In 2011, when the group was still in the US Department of State’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, she explicitly announced that the department must immediately remove it from the list. She also rejects reports from Official US agencies regarding the violent history of the MKO, including the assassination of several US military personnel and civilians in the 1970s.
Tom Cotton
This junior United States senator supported Trump during the 2016 presidential contest. He was mentioned as a possible candidate for secretary of defense in the Trump administration. Cotton frequently met with Trump’s staff during the transition period, and, according to Steve Bannon, he suggested John F. Kelly for the role of secretary of homeland security. In December of 2018, Politico reported that Cotton is a potential choice to replace Jim Mattis as US Secretary of Defense after Mattis announced his resignation for January 1, 2019.
In a Senate meeting room on May 6, 2015, Cotton joined a panel hosted by the so-called Organization of Iranian American Communities (OIAC), a front group for the MKO. According to the Lobe Log’s Eli Clifton, Cotton and the MKO share a common agenda when it comes to the nuclear negotiations with Iran. “Neither Cotton nor the MKO, in other words, thinks there should be any negotiations with the Iranian government.” Clifton wrote.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry says the US and Europe, as supporters of the MKO terrorist group, have the blood of Iranians on their hands.
Lee Zeldin
This member of Congress representing New York’s 1st district endorsed Donald Trump as the Republican presidential nominee On May 3, 2016. In 2017, Zeldin supported Donald Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey, saying it offered the FBI a chance at a “fresh start” to rebuild trust.
In a testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s panel on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade on April 29th 2015, the MKO ringleader Maryam Rajavi told lawmakers about regime change in Tehran. The hearing drew a crowd of MKO supporters, including Rep. Judy Chu, and Sheila Jackson Lee, who were not on the committee but stopped by to praise Rajavi. During the hearing, Freshman Rep. Lee Zeldin, left little doubt that he believed in MKO. “Because there are individuals like you, who are willing to rise up and take control of your country’s future,” he told Rajavi.
Walid Phares
Walid Phares is a right-wing conspiracy theorist and university professor who has worked for the Republican presidential campaigns of Mitt Romney in 2012 and Donald Trump in 2016. He worked as an advisor to presidential candidate Donald Trump and he was paid $13,000 per month by the campaign.
Phares has called the MKO as “the main Iranian opposition movement” and praised its role in the 2017–2018 violent riots in Iran. The Justice Department documents show that Phares met with the MKO on two separate occasions after Trump’s electoral victory in November 2016.
Lindsey Graham
This senator from South Carolina was an outspoken critic of fellow Republican Donald Trump’s 2016 candidacy and repeatedly declared he did not support Trump. After a March 2017 meeting with Trump, Graham became a staunch ally of the president, often issuing public statements in his defense. His ambiguity concerning Trump has brought scrutiny from both the right and left. Graham is also an ardent supporter of Trump’s third national security adviser, John Bolton. Lindsey Graham is a supporter of the MKO and have appeared regularly at the group’s events.
Now, Trump’s defeat in the presidential election is causing the circle of lobbyists and supporters of terrorism to collapse. Extremists in the Middle East, such as the Mujahedin-e-Khalq, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Mohammed bin Salman took advantage of Trump’s presidency to beat the drums for war more vigorously while diminishing opportunities for dialog and a world free of violence.
Trump’s defeat and the Capitol riots were not simply the failure of one candidate. They indicated the defeat of Trumpism. This bellicose and anti-peace ideology must not influence future developments around the world. Trump’s circle of friends and supporters are a threat to democracy, world peace and security. This anti-peace circle with its destructive ideology has no place in the post-Trump world.
By Reza Alghurabi
Reza Alghurabi is an Arab journalist who lives in Iran. He is a former researcher at the Beirut Center for Middle East Studies and an independent researcher and journalist writing in Iranian newspapers including the Khorasan daily.
(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV.)
Mr Parsa Sorbi will moderate an online debate on Mardom TV on Friday 20th November (at 11am New York time, at 17pm Germany time, at 19:30pm Teheran time).
![Parsa Sorbi - Mardom TV](https://www.nejatngo.org/en/wp-content/uploads/Sorbi-MardomTV.jpg)
Broadcast live on Facebook and YouTube, a panel of experts will discuss the question. Audience participation is welcome in a Q&A after each section.
https://www.mardomtv.com/
https://www.facebook.com/mardomtv/
https://www.youtube.com/c/ParsaSorbiMardomTV/
The program is in English.
PART ONE – POLITICAL CONTEXT
In this section, experts talk about the effect of the Trump administration on the fortunes of the MEK in America, Albania and Europe.
Panellists:
Mr Sina Toossi, Senior Research Analyst at the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), Washington
Mr Massoud Khodabandeh, Middle East Strategy Consultants, former MEK member, UK
Dr Olsi Yazeji, Albanian-Canadian Historian, media presenter, Albania
Mr Reza Jebelli Sadeghi, former MEK official in the USA, now working in the EU Parliament, Brussels
PART TWO – MEK IN ALBANIA
This section focuses on MEK activities and behaviour since arriving in Albania and local reactions.
Panellists:
Mr Gjergji Thanasi, award winning investigative journalist, Albania
Ms Migena Bala, lawyer from Tirana, Albania
Mr Hassan Heyrani, businessman in Tirana, former MEK member representing the ex-members in Albania from Tirana
PART THREE – MEK AND HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES
This section drills down into the behaviour of the MEK in relation to Albanian civic life and lives of the membership.
Panellists:
Mr Edward Termado, Armenian-Iranian former POW (Iran-Iraq war) and former MEK member, Germany
Ms Anne Singleton, Open Minds – Cults and Deradicalization expert, UK
CONCLUSION
Returning to the question – With Trump gone, is the MEK finished? – panellists will offer their analyses and answer audience questions
The Rajavi Cult, known in Albania as the ‘Iranians of Manzës’, has recently been experiencing a series of troubles. There are clear signs that the absurd privileges that were accorded to the cult by collaborationist sections of Albanian politics and the administration are coming to an end. The cult until yesterday, apparently abusing the support of a couple of foreign embassies in Tirana, claimed and often succeeded in having similar privileges to the Europeans in the Ottoman Empire in accordance with the Capitulations signed by the Sultan.
The cult commanders treated the Albanian police, at least to the rank of chief commissioner, with arrogance and disregard. Typical in this respect is the arrogance and aggression which was revealed in August 2018 with the poor police officers of Commissariat no. 4 in Tirana (the incident with Mr Mohammadi, Somayeh’s father). Rajavi, but also other commanders, used the VIP Hall at the Mother Teresa Airport (and the privileges granted to this hall), as if they were high-ranking personalities, when in fact in Albania they are simply people given refuge for humanitarian reasons and so! Ignoring local government and every entity of the Albanian central government was something constant in the cult’s behaviour in Albania. Albanian VIPs (mayors, MPs, former ministers and even some ministers), when invited to the cult events in Camp Ashraf 3 (Manzës), often underwent degrading treatment due to “anti-terror measures” (body search and control with metal detectors, getting out of the car and being obliged to walk 200 or so meters in peak heat, etc.).
Typical was the cult’s behaviour in the period of Lockdown when the cult’s cars freely roamed Albania and no police or army checkpoints stopped them!
Thankfully ‘the good old days’ are coming to an end. Albanian institutions and politics are pulling some ‘feathers’ from the tail of Rajavi & Co. and I am offering some examples. At the last hearing of my trial against defendant Behzad Safari, the competent judge rejected three absurd key requests by the defendant’s lawyer. Such a thing had not happened with either of the two judges who had previously had this court file. Public utilities for the supply of water, electricity, etc. are less and less making absurd concessions to the Cult in terms of payment, in terms of the deadline for electricity, water, etc. bills. The people of Manzës are no longer under pressure from the Rilindjes government to sell their lands to the Rajavi cult. Of necessity, MEK is not buying, but renting land and buildings near the camp, due to security measures to ‘protect’ itself from Tehran terrorists. Albanian police officers are less and less ready to stand ready for every whim of Rajavi. Tales of Iranian spies and terrorists are no longer swallowed as easily as a year ago, when the Director General of the State Police himself read the official press release, replete with “Iranian agents”, written and translated into Albanian in Camp Ashraf 3. The leader of the Rajavi Cult has lost a lot of credit since she returned from Rinas Airport with her tail between her legs because the border police of an EU country had turned her back, ignoring her identification document (Titre de Voyage).
In the ranks of the cult, the disbanding is evident, so much so that the perimeter fence of the camp in Manzës, rather than a protective measure to prevent the spies of the mullahs from entering the camp serves to keep the members of the Cult inside, who increasingly, instead of revolution ala Rajavi, prefer to lead a normal life in Albania, or for older people, to return to Iran to be with their sons and daughters, with their grandchildren.
While walking in Tirana recently I saw an old man about 70 years old, who looked like a familiar face. Age had taken its toll and I hardly recognized him, that he was a veteran member of the cult (over 40 years). He was exactly the person named “Cascavel Man”, because in the propaganda photos and videos of MEK he posed proudly on top of a “Cascavel”. This poor old man had already left Camp Ashraf 3 and abandoned the high ideal of “regime change” to spend his remaining days in peace and tranquillity in Tirana. I do not know if he lives on money that his relatives send from outside Albania, or if he lives on the handouts of about 300 USD per month by Rajavi, but I am sure that dark days await the Rajavi Cult when it is abandoned by people such.
Who is “Cascavel Man”?!
The poor old man was the commander of a wheeled tank called the Cascavel. Like thousands of other of Saddam Hussein’s mercenary MEKs, he attacked his homeland Iran in the last days of the Iran-Iraq war (Operation Mersad). Luckily, unlike thousands of other MEKs, he escaped alive from Iran and returned to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. In 1991, as a mercenary and Saddam’s hunting dog, he flattened dozens of homes, shops, schools and medical centres of the anti-Saddam Kurdish rebels with 90 mm Cascavel artillery after President Bush’s appeal. Dozens of Kurds are believed to have been killed by his Cascavel. Of course, most of them were women and children, old men and women.
As a mercenary of the dictator Saddam, it is believed that dozens of Iraqis in the swamps around Basra called “Shroog” were crushed by the Cascavel’s wheels or killed by 50 calibre machine gun bullets by this miserable MEK member. In short, when such a man with blood-stained hands up to the elbow leaves the Rajavi Cult, one can easily guess what the real situation is like in the camp, among other MEKs. When such a veteran shakes the Rajavi Cult, what about the others?!?!?! I am leaving the price for the reader to appreciate, whether it is a danger for Albania, that such a veteran walks the streets of Tirana, or not!
Why the Cult is dying in Albania
What is happening with the Rajavi Cult in Albania, is more or less what happens to any ordinary swindler when gradually their lies and deceptions start to fade. Some examples: Speculating in the presence in the Cult rallies and meetings of some dozen VIPs and former VIPs of American politics, judiciary and administration, Maryam Rajavi, the head of the Cult began to make false promises to Albanian politicians. By the way, a mayor promised to remove her name from the State Department list of persons who are not granted an entry visa to America. In fact, not only did he not remove her name from the “List of Voices”, but thanks to the lobbying of Lali Fik of Tirana, the measure was applied to the poor mayor: “Name and Shame”, ie: Fik put the mayor’s name out, making public the fact that his family was on this American blacklist! A former president of Albania was promised that the cult would lobby for his son and his girlfriend to be removed from the Black List of persons, who are banned from obtaining American visas. Result: From May 2019 until today, October 2020, the son of the former president has not yet received a US visa (SIC!). With extreme shamelessness Ilir Meta, the President of the Republic of Albania, promised the cult that he would lobby the offices of “Foggy Bottoms”, to neutralize the anti-president attitude of the “tenants” of the “Rilindja Ridge” Compound. Although the President of the country went to Camp Ashraf 3 as Emperor Barbarossa in Canossa, the embassy of Madame ‘Ambassador Kim’ still continues to be virulent against the President of the Republic. The thugs of the Rajavi Cult have started to harvest in Albania, what they sowed! I am very confident that this winter will be a winter of great solitude for the Rajavi Cult in Albania. Unfortunately, my homeland Albania will continue to function as a garbage can for MEK members, who are expelled (leave voluntarily) from EU countries such as France or Germany, where the cult offices have been emptied for many a day!
Exclusive for Ashraf News by Gjergji Thanasi – Translated by Iran Interlink
Once advocating the anti-American anti-imperialism stance of their early leaders and then designated as a terrorist organization by the US State Department, the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi) is now pretending to be a friend of the US government! The group’s U-Turn to serve the US has been its main policy during the past decades, particularly after the collapse of the group’s longtime sponsor Saddam Hussein in 2003.
However, not all parts of the US government are favorites of the MEK. As far as an administration is a hawkish one, with stricter policies against the government in Tehran, it is favorable for the MEK leaders. Thus, Trump and his warmonger team must be the MEK’s best friends in the US administration. Therefore, it is worth it for MEK to support Trump for the next term.
The love affair of the MEK with US warmongers is not limited to the paid speeches of politicians like John Bolton and Rudy Giuliani in the MEK-run events in France, Albania and the United States. Mr. President himself has supported the MEK’s campaign against the Iranian nation. Although, the MEK may not be known to most American politicians, the propaganda activities of the group sometimes has been very crucial in manipulating warmongers.
It was a huge disclosure in the mass media when Murtaza Hussain of the Intercept reported that Trump retweeted fake news made by an anti-Iran hardliner who does not exist. He revealed the MEK-made fake persona in tweeter under the name of Heshmat Alavi.”This is not and has never been a real person,”Hussain stated. [1]
The moves by Trump –even unintentionally— seems to be in favor of the MEK. In September, Al Monitor stated that the US President’s appointee to the Supreme Court,”Amy Coney Barrett was part of a legal team that represented the National Council of Resistance of Iran, which had previously been designated by the United States as a terrorist organization”. [2] Dr. Djene Bajalan, a historian of the Middle East talked to the American Michael Brook’s show about Amy Coney Barrett’s relationship with the MEK.
“Amy Barrett’s work has been to advocate on behalf of the Mujahedin Khalq, the MEK which is s a terrorist organization by any standards,”he said. Calling the MEK as”crazy people”, he suggests that these crazy people can run their agenda among the US republicans because they have money.”They pay people big box to give speech and things like that,”he said. [3]
Therefore, it sounds expectable to find the MEK running campaigns making efforts to aid Trump win the elections. The MEK has actually its own usual techniques in misinformation campaigns in the media. The US Director of Intelligence John Ratcliffe announced on Politico, on October 21 that,”Iran is behind threatening pro-Trump emails to U.S. voters”. [4] Juan Cole who is specialized in Middle Eastern and South Asian history and a critic of the MEK’s cult-like violent record, suggests that Ratcliffe’s words are”brain dead thing”and that the spoofed emails can be part of the MEK’s PR mechanism.
He clarifies:”Now, could the spoofed emails have come from accounts in Iran? Sure. The People’s Jihadis (Mojahedin-e Khalq or MEK, MKO), sometimes listed as a terrorist group by the US State Department, wants to overthrow the Islamic Republic, is active inside Iran and could easily set the government up in this way. Or I’m sure that Saudi or other anti-Iran government hackers could route the emails through an Iranian server or spoof an Iranian internet service provider. But, really, guys, intelligence analysis isn’t just tracing an ISP. You have to know geopolitics to know if something is plausible.”[5]
What is significant in the MEK-Warmongers relationship is that all sides of the alliance do not care about Iranian people. The proof of that is the support of US hardliners for the MEK which is a hated entity among the Iranians.
By Mazda Parsi
References:
[1] Hussain, Murtaza, An Iranian Activist Wrote Dozens of Articles for Right-Wing Outlets. But Is He a Real Person?, The Intercept, June 9th, 2019.
[2] Al Monitor Staff, Trump’s Supreme Court Pick Represented Controversial Iranian Group, Al Monitor, September 30th, 2020.
[3] https://www.nejatngo.org/en/posts/11158
[4] Geller, Eric, Iran behind threatening pro-Trump emails to U.S. voters, feds say, Politico, October 21st, 2020.
[5] Cole, Juan, Trumpie Wingnut DNI Ratcliffe hilariously blames Iran for pro-Trump Email Spoofs, Informed Comment, October 22nd, 2020.
Iranian forces carried out Defensive Operation Mersad on July 26, 1988, the last major military operation of the Iraqi imposed war in the western province of Kermanshah to successfully counterattack against the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) terrorist group backed by the US and Saddam Hussein.[1] Two days before the operation, MEK, who had gathered their forces on the Iranian-Iraqi border and were equipped with heavy weapons provided by Saddam, began invading Iranian territory. The MEK advanced under heavy Iraqi air cover, violating UNSCR 598, accepted by both Iran and Iraq, which would end the war on 8 August 1988.[2] Simultaneously with Operation Forough Javidan by the MEK, the Iraqi army bombed several Iranian villages around Kermanshah with Mustard and Nerve chemical weapons of mass destruction killing hundreds of Iranian civilians and injuring 2,300.[3] Not to mention that during the eight years of Iran-Iraq war more than 350 large-scale gas attacks were reported in the border areas,[4] and there is not even a single United Nation Security Council Resolution to condemn the use of chemical weapons; in fact, there could be one, but the United States vetoed the condemnation. Of course, MEK’s offensive failed, leaving thousands of martyrs. After the war, however, the organization continued its attacks against Iranian civilians and government officials. Out of nearly 17,000 Iranians killed in terrorist attacks over the past four decades, about 16,000 have fallen victim to MEK’s acts of terror.[5] The cult, despite its dark history, however, nowadays is being heavily funded by the US regime and Saudis to keep on moving by spreading fake news and propaganda through disinformation campaigns for the sole purpose of manipulating and provoking public opinion.
![MEK’s troll farm in Albania](https://www.nejatngo.org/en/wp-content/uploads/MKO_Albania_48.jpg)
In February 2020, the New York Times interviewed 10 ex-MEK members who said that the MEK’s Albania camp had a troll farm.[6] A troll farm is an institutionalized group of internet trolls aimed to interfere in political opinions and decision-making. According to the Cambridge dictionary, a troll is someone who leaves an intentionally annoying or offensive message on the internet, in order to upset someone or to get attention or cause trouble. MEK’s Albania troll factory or troll farm promoted the opinions of MEK supporters under specific guidelines for specific reasons, spread fake news, and devoted itself to manipulate and provoke the public for rebellion and violence. Certain analysts such as Kenneth R. Timmerman and Paul R. Pillar also believe that the group hires protesters to shape public opinion in exile.[7] In an article published by The Intercept on 9 June 2019, two former MEK members claimed that “Heshmat Alavi” is not a real person, and that the articles published under that name were actually written by a team of people at the political wing of the MEK.[8] Alavi contributed to several media outlets including Forbes, The Diplomat, The Hill, The Daily Caller, The Federalist, and the English edition of Al Arabiya’s website. According to The Intercept, one of Alavi’s articles published by Forbes was used by the White House to justify Donald Trump Administration’s sanctions against Iran.
An Iranian Activist Wrote Dozens of Articles for Right-Wing Outlets. But Is He a Real Person?
In 2018, President Donald Trump was seeking to jettison the landmark nuclear deal that his predecessor had signed with…
theintercept.com
“We were always active in making false news stories to spread to the foreign press and in Iran,” Reza Sadeghi — a member of the MEK until 2008, involved in lobbying activities in the United States, as well as operations at the MEK’s former base at Camp Ashraf in Iraq — reveals in the interview. “At Camp Ashraf, there were computers set up to do online information operations. Over the years, this activity got more intense with the introduction of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.”
There are dozens, or maybe hundreds, of other networks in step with peremptory demands of some warmongering regime change advocates. Their objectives are to occupy minds and to distort histories, to disturb and to call forth the public, to use people as artillery support under a constant bombardment of provoking and fake news.
Iran International Network, Saudis’ Black Propaganda Machine
Iran International, launched in May 2017 shortly before presidential elections in Iran, is another London-based…
medium.com
[1] Kaveh Farrokh, “Iran at War: 1500–1988,” Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2011.
[2] United Nations, “Search engine for the United Nations Security Council Resolutions,” http://unscr.com/en/resolutions/598
[3] Eric A. Croddy, James J. Wirtz, and Jeffrey A. Larsen, “Weapons of Mass Destruction: An Encyclopedia of Worldwide Policy, Technology, and History,” 2004. The actual casualties may be much higher, as the latency period is as long as 40 years. See Robin Wright, “Iran Still Haunted and Influenced By Chemical Weapons Attacks,” January 2014.
[4] Ali Karami, “Long Legacy,” cbrneworld, 2012, http://www.cbrneworld.com/_uploads/download_magazines/Long_legacy.pdf
[5] Hamid Reza Qasemi, 2016, “Chapter 12: Iran and Its Policy Against Terrorism” in Alexander R. Dawoody, “Eradicating Terrorism from the Middle East. Policy and Administrative Approaches,” Springer International Publishing Switzerland.
[6] Patrick Kingsley, “Highly Secretive Iranian Rebels Are Holed Up in Albania. They Gave Us a Tour,” The New York Times, 16 February 2020.
[7] Zaid Jilani, “Attendees Bused Into MEK Rally, Some Of Whom Don’t Really Understand What The MEK Is,” ThinkProgress, 26 August 2011.
[8] Murtaza Hussain, “An Iranian Activist Wrote Dozens of Articles for Right-Wing Outlets. But Is He a Real Person?” The Intercept, 9 June 2019.
by Mehrdad Torabi – medium.com