text:
US politicians get money from Mojahedin Khalq (MEK) who killed US citizens
BY Iran Interlink, 2018/12/13
David William Pear, The Greenville Post, December 13 2018:… The fact that Mujahideen-e-Khalq, MEK has killed US citizens in terrorist attacks did not hinder some US politicians from accepting large speaking fees at their conventions, even when MEK was still on the US terrorist list. The US has also instigated instability inside Iran and supported external attacks by terrorist groups such as Mujahideen-e-Khalq, or MEK …
Col. Jack Turner and Col. Paul Shaffer victims of Mojahedin Khalq terror campaign
Link to the source (Greenville Post)
Link to the source (Scoop)
The US Wants to Bring Back the Shah of Iran
Wednesday, 12 December 2018, 11:05 am
Article: David William Pear
By David William Pear
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, aka The Shah of Iran, photo Wikipedia
The US had a great deal going from 1953 to 1979 with the Shah of Iran. For 25 years Iran was a cornerstone of the US usurping the British Empire in the Middle East, following World War Two. Iran was a base for projecting US power in the region, and strategically it bordered the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
During the early 20th century the British Empire had full control of Iran's oil industry, and was paying Iran a flat fee for every barrel of oil it extracted. A rough calculation of Iran's royalties is between 8% to 16% of the profits, but Iran was never allowed to look at the financial books. [*]
Prior to the CIA-led 1953 overthrow of the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh, Iran demanded 50% of the profits and control of their oil industry. That was not unreasonable, but Iran was willing to negotiate. At the time, the US oil companies had a 50/50 profit sharing agreement with Saudi Arabia.
The British refused any negotiated settlement. It was then that the Iranian parliament led by Mossadegh voted to nationalized Iran's oil industry. The British responded with a naval blockade, and began plotting to overthrow Mossadegh and the parliament. As the Prime Minister, Mossadegh held the most political power in Iran because the people were behind him. The Shah of Iran was mostly a figurehead, at the time. [*]
Mural on the American Embassy in Iran. (Credit: Phillip Maiwald)
President Harry Truman was adamantly against colonialism and sided with Iran, which infuriated the British. When President Dwight D. Eisenhower took office in 1953, he sided with the British. Eisenhower and Churchill plotted a coup d'état to overthrow Mossadegh. The frightened Shah, who was in on the plot, fled from Iran before the coup attempt just in case anything went wrong. The first attempt did fail. A second daring CIA-led coup succeeded and the US reinstalled Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as the Shah of Iran, with dictatorial power.
By its intervention, the US broke the British Empire's monopoly on Iran's oil. That was part of the US's calculous. After the coup, US oil companies got 40% of Iran's oil industry, 14% went to Royal Dutch-Shell, 6 % went to the French Petroleum Company, and the British oil company kept 40%. In addition, Iran got its 50/50 share of the net profits that it wanted in the first place. The US immediately sent financial aid to prop up the Shah, and to bolster Iran's weakened economy from the British blockade.
If the British had initially been flexible, renegotiated a 50/50 oil deal with Prime Minister Mossadegh, then it would have made a coup less likely. Iran was developing a secular democratic government. It might have become a model for other post-colonial countries in the Middle East. Democracy and self-determination are what the US said its world mission was going back to President Woodrow Wilson in 1918:
"….every peace-loving nation which, like our own, wishes to live its own life, determine its own institutions, be assured of justice and fair dealing by the other peoples of the world as against force and selfish aggression. All the peoples of the world are in effect partners in this interest, and for our own part we see very clearly that unless justice be done to others it will not be done to us." [*]
Since Iran was a developing democracy, an excuse had to be found for a US intervention. Churchill accused Mossadegh of being a communist. There was no evidence that he was. Mossadegh was an anti-colonial nationalist who cared about the welfare of the Iranian people, and that was all the evidence that Eisenhower needed. Mossadegh had to be punished for standing up to the British and demanding Iran's natural resources for the benefit of the Iranian people.
The winners from the coup were the US and the timid Shah who had ran from his own people. The US would teach him how to have a backbone. He turned out to be a good student, and with the support of the US he turned Iran into a totalitarian police state and he ruled by terror. The Shah got US protection from his own people and from foreign enemies.
The US looked the other way from the Shah's corruption of conspicuous consumption, stuffing dollars in foreign bank accounts and lining his own pockets, and those of his cronies. The US got a big piece of the Iran oil industry, and Iran gave the US a strategically important location for a military presence. As for the people of Iran, they continued to live in abject poverty and illiteracy. [*]
Now that the Shah is gone, the US propaganda machine and the mainstream media put out a flood of stories about how wonderful life was under the Shah. The propagandists use economic indicators of inflation, employment, gross domestic product, oil exports and the upper-class standard of living. Anybody who puts out those kinds of comparative economics deserves to flunk Economics 101.
Iran has been under sever US-imposed economic sanctions for 40 years. The US has been threatening Iran with war and "all options are on the table" for decades. The US has also instigated instability inside Iran and supported external attacks by terrorist groups such as Mujahideen-e-Khalq, or MEK. [*]
MEK was on the US State Department's list of terrorist organization until it was removed by former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2012. [*] The fact that MEK has killed US citizens in terrorist attacks did not hinder some US politicians from accepting large speaking fees at their conventions, even when MEK was still on the US terrorist list. [*]
The US project to destroy Iran's economy has had a devastating impact. The husky Secretary of Defense Mike Pompeo said that it is up to Iranian's leadership "if they want their people to eat".[*] Because of the US, Iran lacks sufficient funds that it would like to invest in human resources and social programs. Iran's constitution guarantees healthcare and free education for all, as well as protections of civil rights. As reflected in the drafting of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic, the vision of the economic order was:
"Social justice and economic independence were the main economic goals to be achieved, among other means, through the expansion of the welfare state, extension of public ownership, creation of an active cooperative sector, and strengthening the agricultural and industrial sectors for greater self-reliance. ….the Constitution of the Islamic Republic bears great resemblance on economic issues to the charters and constitutions of Arab "socialist" states drafted during the 1960s and 1970s." [*]
Constant US, Israeli and Saudi threats require Iran to divert its domestic budget more towards defense, instead of its desired economic goals. Terrorist attacks and internal dissention stirred up by the US causes Iran to increase its internal security to the detriment of civil liberties. The US and the mainstream media propaganda machines know what the deliberate effects of US aggressive actions cause, but they cruelly taunt Iran for its economic and social hardships by blaming the victim.
The US uses these same dirty tricks against Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, North Korea, Russia and every other country that the US demonizes for not falling into line behind US domination in the neoliberal New World Order. The New World Order is the US foreign policy that it alone is unrestrained to "destabilize countries in order to integrate them militarily, politically and economically ….into US-style capitalism and culture". [*]
The US is still fighting a cold war against socialism, the welfare state, and public ownership. A cold war against Iran is not about US national security. Iran is not an existential threat to the US, or to Israel either. [*] It is about US corporations being thwarted from exploiting Iran's natural resources, privatizing their state-owned enterprises, and "opening" Iran to unequal trade arrangements. It is also about the US being the hegemon in the Middle East.
The US is still using the same gunboat diplomacy that it has been using since the 19th century to "open" Latin America, Japan, Korea, China and the Philippians to exploitation. It is old fashioned imperialism dressed up in the jargon of "human rights, democracy, and US exceptionalism". It is what old-world colonialism called "civilizing the heathens".
The US will never forgive the Islamic Republic of Iran for shutting down the US deal of exploitation. With the Shah's cut from oil companies, he was a very big customer for US weapons manufacturers, such as General Dynamics, Lockheed, and Northrop. He also aggressively bought into President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace program. At the urging of the US, Iran began its nuclear program in 1957. [**]
Selling weapons and nuclear technology was good business for weapons manufacturers and the nuclear industry. US companies like General Electric and Westinghouse sold Iran the nuclear equipment and technology, as well as the enriched uranium fuel. They even sold the Shah highly enriched weapons grade uranium, which is the most efficient for producing electricity, and making atomic bombs, too. [*]
As far as the US public knew the Shah was highly popular and loved by his people. Imagine the surprise when the people of Iran overthrew him in 1979. The mainstream media was shocked too, since they had swallowed their own propaganda. The images of Iranians rioting, protesting, burning the US flag and shouting Death to America were frightening, it looked irrational, and it seemed to come out of nowhere.
The US public and press became outraged when the US Embassy in Tehran was stormed by revolutionary students who took 52 Americans hostage. The students renamed the US Embassy the "Den of Spies". The students had every reason for that name, given the cache of incriminating documents they discovered. [*]
In the US, every nightly TV news broadcast began with the number of days that had passed since the beginning of the Iran Hostage Crisis. It lasted for 444 days, and resulted in President Carter losing his re-election bid to Ronald Reagan in 1980.
Instead of an imperial looking shah, the Iranian Revolution ushered in an Islamic leader to head the government. The thought of Iran turning into a theocracy seemed antiquated to Americans. They had not known that Ayatollah Khomeini was a national hero since the early 1960's. He had been arrested, tortured, imprisoned and then exiled to France for his outspoken opposition to the Shah. [*] The unphotogenic image of a dour looking Ayatollah Khomeini was an easy target for Western racist and Islamophobic propaganda.
Imam Khomeini, the late founder of the Islamic Republic (PressTV)
The US public could not understand why Iran became anti-US, anti-West, anti-modern, and appeared to be fanatical. The violent purging of the Shah's cronies and of the opposition was shocking. Iranian supporters of the Shah who fled to the US brought with them wild tales of people being hung from street lamps for having televisions and toilets in their homes. They left out the part about how they lived in affluent luxury, while the vast majority of people lived in hovels. The transition was violence, and it lasted for about 2 years.
The US public had no idea why the Iranian people hated the US so much. The facts were kept secret from the public for years. The State Department documents were finally made public in 2017. [*] For many decades the public did not know that it was the US, from President Eisenhower on down through the State Department and the CIA, which overthrew the popular democratically elected government of the charismatic Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh. [*] But the Iranian people knew that It was the US that put the brutal regime of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi on the Peacock Throne. [*]
The US public was uninformed of the Shah's repression, political prisoners, torture chambers, assassinations, disappearances and executions. Not only did the US government turn a blind eye to the brutality, it was the CIA (and Israel's Mossad) that was the overseer and mentor to the Shah's secret police; the "Organization of National Intelligence and Security of the Nation", known as SAVAK. [*]
[YouTube, 1953 Iran US-Led CIA Coup d'etat]
For an example of the Shah's brutality, an Amnesty International assessment for 1974-1975 report stated:
"The shah of Iran retains his benevolent [world] image despite the highest rate of death penalties in the world, no valid system of civilian courts and a history of torture which is beyond belief." [*]
Once when The Shah was confronted by a journalist for the French newspaper Le Monde about his brutal repression methods he responded:
"Why should we not employ the same methods as you Europeans. We have learned sophisticated methods of torture from you. You use psychological methods to extract the truth; we do the same."
In 1978 Amnesty International reported that nothing had changed for the better in Iran. Even the mention of the word SAVAK was enough to send chills down the backs of Iranians.
The explosion of the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the Hostage Crisis and the animosity of the Iranian people towards the US government was the direct result and blowback from 25 years of the US coddling and sheltering its shah puppet. As Kermit Roosevelt who was the CIA station chief in Tehran in 1953 said of the Shah: "He's our boy". It was Roosevelt who engineered and implemented the coup that brought the Shaw to power. The codename for the coup was Operation Ajax. [*]
Just as Trump is trying to cover up for MBS (as Thomas Friedman affectionately refers to the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia), President Jimmy "Human Rights" Carter tried to cover up and sheltered Mohammad Reza Pahlavi after the Iranian Revolution. The Iranian people wanted the Shah arrested by the US, where he had fled. They wanted him extradited to Iran to face justice.
Henry Kissinger and David Rockefeller had appealed to Carter's compassion to admit the Shah to the US for health reasons. After much vacillation Carter agreed. [*] Carter had had a friendly personal relationship with The Shah. In 1977 Carter visited Iran and toasted the Shah for his "island of stability" and for "the admiration and love which your people give you". [*]
Carter admitted the Shah to the US on October 21, 1979. On November 4, 1979 revolutionary students took over the US Embassy in Tehran, and demanded the Shah in exchange for the US hostages. Carter said he refused to give in to "blackmail" to a group of "terrorists". Still vacillating, Carter expelled the Shah from the US. He died in Egypt in 1980. [*]
As a reaction to the Iran Hostage Crisis, the US imposed unilateral sanctions on Iran, cut off the sale of oil and froze their assets in the US. The US put an embargo on Iran, including humanitarian supplies, and the US broke diplomatic relations. Needless to say, the US stopped its "Atoms for Peace" program and cooperation with Iran in developing nuclear energy. [*]
Not coincidentally, Iran released the US hostages within hours of Ronald Reagan being sworn in as President in 1981. The circumstances and timing of the hostage release is still controversial. [*] Most likely, Carter deserves the credit for successfully negotiating the release of the hostages. [*] Why the Iranians released the hostages when they did is still a mystery.
In 1980 Iraq invaded Iran starting the Iran-Iraq war that lasted until 1988. Whether or not the US gave a "green light" to Saddam Hussein to invade Iran, the US did not try to prevent or stop Iraq's aggression. According to Dexter Filkins, writing in the New Yorker:
Iran's leaders took two lessons from the Iran-Iraq War. The first was that Iran was surrounded by enemies, near and far. To the regime, the invasion was not so much an Iraqi plot as a Western one. American officials were aware of Saddam's preparations to invade Iran in 1980, and they later provided him with targeting information used in chemical-weapons attacks; the weapons themselves were built with the help of Western European firms.
The other lesson drawn from the Iran-Iraq War was the futility of fighting a head-to-head confrontation. ……Instead, they had to build the capacity to wage asymmetrical warfare—attacking stronger powers indirectly, outside of Iran. [*]
According to the New York Times, "the Reagan Administration secretly decided shortly after taking office in January 1981 to allow Israel to ship several billion dollars' worth of American arms and spare parts to Iran". [*] Cynically the US later said that it gave aid to both sides "to remain neutral"; and unsaid was to keep either side from winning. Both Iran and Iraq suffered over 500,000 casualties each in the Iran-Iraq War.
If the US had hoped that the Iran-Iraq war would weaken Iran, then the unintended consequences were just the opposite, as often is the case with US duplicity. Iraq's invasion of Iran united the Iranian people strongly behind the Iran revolutionary government. In 2003, President Bush's invasion of Iraq would make Iran an even stronger regional power.
In 1982 Israel invaded Lebanon, and through a series of events Reagan sent US Marines to Lebanon. He called them a "peacekeeping force" to avoid having to get Congressional approval under the 1973 War Powers Resolution. In 1983 a truck bomb suicide attack on a Marine barracks in Lebanon killed 241 people, mostly US Marines. The US blamed the attack on Iran and declared Iran a "terrorist state". More US sanctions were imposed on Iran even though there was only circumstantial evidence that Iran was the perpetrator.
In 1988 the US shot down an Iranian commercial airliner that was in Iranian airspace. All 290 passengers and crew of the airliner died. [*] The US claimed that it mistook the plane for a threatening fighter jet. Even though the US admitted that it had shot down the airliner, President George H. W. Bush refused to apologize, saying "I'm not an apologize-for-America kind of guy". [*]
Even with all the turmoil of the 1980's, Iran continued to work on its nuclear program. It had signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1970. Iran has every right under the treaty to a nuclear energy program. In fact, under the treaty the nuclear-weapons countries are obligated to cooperate with the non-nuclear-weapons countries in the peaceful development of atomic energy.
Instead of abiding by the NPT, the US used the red herring that Iran had a nuclear weapons program. Without proof, the US slapped unilateral economic sanctions on Iran. So, Iran turned to France, Russia and other countries to purchase material, equipment and technology for its nuclear energy program.
After the Iraq invasion of Kuwait in 1990, and the US war with Iraq, the US imposed sanctions on both Iraq and Iran. While Iran had declared neutrality in the war, the US accused Iran of secretly aiding Iraq. The real reason why the US imposed sanctions on Iran was that it was concerned that a weakened Iraq would strengthen Iran as a regional power, which is exactly what it did. [*]
Then in 1996 under President Bill Clinton, what was to become known as the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act was passed by Congress. l*] This act penalized any US or foreign entities that invested in Iran's oil and gas industry. The supposed rational was that investing in Iran's oil and gas industry would provide Iran with the funds to develop weapons of mass destruction. Since money is fungible, the same logic could be used about all trade with Iran, and eventually it was. Still there is no proof, except circumstantial, that Iran has ever had a nuclear weapons program.
The real reason for economic sanctions is that the US is engaging in economic warfare against Iran. It is angry because their puppet shah was overthrown. US economic sanctions are an attempt to destroy Iran's economy. As the most powerful and influential economic nation in the world the US can exert tremendous financial penalties, hardships and isolation on other countries. Most of the suffering from sanctions are borne by civilians.
Does supporting the aggressor in a war, aiding the aggressor in the use of banned chemical weapons, giving both sides weapons to kill each other, and shooting down a civilian airliner qualify as "state sponsored terrorism"? Since 1979 the US has killed millions of people is covert operations such as in Afghanistan, and in illegal wars of aggression in the Middle East, such as the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Yet, Iran is condemned by the US as the world's "leading state sponsor of terrorism"? Such accusations by the US against Iran are hypocritical and politically motivated hyperbole. [*] The motive for US propaganda is to aid the cause of overthrowing, one way or another, the internationally recognized legal government of Iran. [*] The world's leading sponsor of state terrorism is surely the US, and its partners in terrorism are the UK, Israel, and Saudi Arabia, and the other Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
The definition of terrorism according to Webster's dictionary is "the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims".
The victims of US economic sanctions call it financial terrorism. It is and it does hurt mostly civilians financially, and it causes them unnecessary suffering and deaths from the lack of nutrition and medicines for curable and preventable diseases. There is also tremendous emotional distress on the civilian population caused by economic sanctions. Alcoholism, drug addiction, divorce, crime and many other social conditions are exacerbated.
Economic sanctions meet the definition of terrorism, and that makes economic sanctions a crime against humanity. Even UN authorized economic sanctions overstep the Geneva Conventions and are immoral and may be unlawful. The International Committee of the Red Cross has cautioned the United Nations Security Council that the "Security Council is bound to observe the principles of international humanitarian law when designing, monitoring and reviewing sanctions regimes." [*]
The US wants to turn the clock back to 1953 and a return of the Shah of Iran. Why not? The US had a great deal going with the Shah of Iran for a quarter of a century, until the Iranian Revolution of 1979. That is why the US hates the current government and wants to overthrow it.
The US is determined to undermine the government of Iran. President Trump's violation of the JCPOA, "Iran Deal", has put "all options on the table" again: economic sanctions, terrorism, war and even the use of nuclear weapons. Iran is now in its 40th year of the Islamic Republic. [*] Speaking to the terrorist group MEK in 2017, John Bolton said that President Trump's policies should be that "Ayatollah Khomeini's 1979 revolution will not last until its 40th birthday." [*] The 40th anniversary of Iran's Islamic Revolution will take place in a few months, on February 11, 2019. Obviously, Bolton is not invited.
Iranians vote for the establishment of Islamic Republic in 1979.
John Bolton: Iran Regime Must Not Reach 40th Birthday
Trump says that the Iran Deal is the worst deal in history. What the US wants is the old deal that it had with Iran from 1953 to 1979. That was the "Greatest Iran Deal in History". The CIA already has their man ready. They have been grooming him since he was 17 years old. He lives not far from the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. He is Reza Pahlavi, the Crown Prince of Iran. He is the last heir apparent to his father's defunct Peacock Throne. He is waiting in the wings for the job opening for a new Shah of Iran.
Reza Pahlavi, Crown Prince of Iran
[*] Glide your mouse over the stars in the article for hyperlinks to supporting attributions.
"The Plot to Attack Iran: How the CIA and the Deep State Have Conspired to Vilify Iran", by Dan Kovalik.
"Shah of Shahs", by Ryszard Kapuscinski.
"All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror", by Stephen Kinzer.
[Bio: David William Pear is a columnist writing on U.S. foreign policy, economic and political issues, human rights and social issues. David is a Senior Contributing Editor of The Greanville Post (TGP) and a prior Senior Editor for OpEdNews (OEN). David has been writing for The Real News Network (TRNN) and other publications for over 10 years. David is a member of Veterans for Peace, Saint Pete (Florida) for Peace, CodePink, and the Palestinian-led non-violent organization International Solidarity Movement. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution, Non-Commercial 4.0 International License.]
Photo Exhibition Press Club, Brussels – International Terrorism Mojahedin Khalq (MEK, NCRI, Rajavi cult)
https://iran-interlink.org/wordpress/trump-war-whore-celebrates-starvation-of-iranian-civilians-at-mek-rally/
Trump War Whore Celebrates Starvation Of Iranian Civilians At MEK Rally
Caitlin Johnstone, Iranian.com, September 25 2018:… Giuliani was hired to speak alongside Maryam Rajavi, the leader of the Mujahideen e Khalq (MEK), a paramilitary cult that was only recently delisted by Hillary Clinton as a designated terror group at the behest of CIA and FBI insiders and other shadow government stalwarts. The MEK was originally listed as a terrorist group because …
The Iran Protests, Regime Change, And The MEK
National Security: Could Maryam Rajavi (Mojahedin Khalq) blackmail her friends in high places – Rudi Giuliani, John Bolton and Newt Gingrich
Link to the source
by Caitlin Johnstone
Just when you thought this administration couldn't get more cartoonishly villainous, Trump lawyer and Simon Bar Sinister stunt double Rudy Giuliani takes to the stage and enthuses about how US sanctions are making Iranian citizens so desperate they are offering to sell their internal organs for $500 in order to stay alive.
"Probably a fortune in Iran today. This is truly pitiful!" he crowed triumphantly to the crowd at the Iran Uprising Summit in New York on Saturday, pleased as punch by the US government's success in torturing everyday Iranians with starvation.
Giuliani, who is basically what you'd get if necrophilia and racist police shootings had a baby, fumbled his way through a paid speech for the MEK terror cult with all the grace of a drunken creepy uncle MCing his way through a family wedding. In it he not only gloated over the starvation and severe impoverishment of Iranian civilians, but openly proclaimed that regime change was coming to Iran due to the actions of the Trump administration.
"I don't know when we're going to overthrow them. It could be in a few days, months, a couple of years, but it's going to happen. They're going to be overthrown." Guiliani said definitively. "The people of Iran have obviously now had enough. The sanctions are working. The currency is going to nothing! They're where Russia was. They're where Poland was. We see signs of young men and women saying 'Give me some food!' We saw a sign of a man trying to sell his internal organs for five hundred American dollars – probably a fortune in Iran today! This is truly pitiful. These are the kinds of conditions that lead to successful revolution, and God willing, non-violent revolution."
At the MEK regime change cult's Iran Uprising Summit, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani proclaims in paid address, "They will be overthrown!" He then celebrates reports of desperate Iranians seeking to sell their organs and begging for food due to US sanctions. pic.twitter.com/AEt6Pl4y5y
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) September 23, 2018
Truly pitiful, he reckons. That's like standing on a patient's oxygen hose at the hospital and then making fun of them for gasping for air. Sanctions are the only legal act of war that deliberately target innocent civilians, and here is Giuliani mocking people for the suffering he is gleefully supporting inflicting.
Corpse bride Nikki Haley was quick to distance the Trump administration from Giuliani's regime change rhetoric, as was the US State Department in a statement to Reuters, because as we saw them do with Libya and as we've seen them attempt with Syria, the US government has ever since the disastrous Iraq invasion had a standing policy of denying that it is pushing for regime change in key strategic regions while doing exactly that. But Giuliani has been repeatedly appearing at these eventsspouting the exact same regime change rhetoric while retaining employment as Trump's lawyer, and at no time has the president or anyone else in the administration made him stop. The administration can't actually have that much of a problem with Giuliani's schtick; if it did Giuliani would either stop or be fired.
Neither has happened. Giuliani keeps getting these lucrative speaking gigs where he champions regime change again and again, which was also done at another such event by murderous psychopath John Bolton not long before he was hired as Trump's National Security Advisor. Giuliani's words have the tacit blessing of the Trump administration.
Giuliani was hired to speak alongside Maryam Rajavi, the leader of the Mujahideen e Khalq (MEK), a paramilitary cult that was only recently delisted by Hillary Clinton as a designated terror group at the behest of CIA and FBI insiders and other shadow government stalwarts. The MEK was originally listed as a terrorist group because it has killed Americans and has an extensive history of committing acts of terrorism, and has recently been exposed in operating an extensive social media propaganda campaign to manufacture support for Iranian regime change in the west. Rajavi boasted at the event that her group has organized special "Units of Rebellion" to run riots and interference inside Iran, which was a pretty interesting thing to say on the very same day that there was a terror attack on a military parade in the Iranian city of Ahvaz that slaughtered 24 people and wounded many more.
There was no inference that the MEK was responsible for this particular attack, but it's kind of fascinating that while Nikki Haley was telling Iran to "look in the mirror" with regard to the attack on Ahvaz because in her view, the attack came from organic civil unrest which is the fault of the Iranian government, Giuliani was celebrating that the sanctions applied by the US were working because they were causing the kind of intense suffering on civilians that leads to civil unrest and a "successful revolution", while Rajavi was saying that her (exiled) group was planning on riots and provocations to stimulate civil unrest. Not to mention the fact that the coup-staging CIA recently escalated covert operations in that nation.
How exactly do they think this works? You can't be boasting about your success at provoking civil unrest while pretending you're just an innocent-but-concerned bystander who had his hands in his pockets the whole time, officer. Not a thing.
They think we're stupid. They must, or they'd never try to get away with this bullshit. Eyes and ears open, clear-eyed rebels. The veils are being pulled back almost quicker than we can process.
'America's Mayor' Rudy Giuliani Is Just Donald Trump's Stooge Now
The MEK's man inside the White House (Maryam Rajavi cult, Mojahedin Khalq)
The love story of US and MEK terrorists (aka Mojahedin Khalq, MKO, NCRI, Rajavi cult …)
BBC: Who are the Iranian dissident group MEK? (Mojahedin Khalq, MKO, PMOI, …)
The shadowy cult Trump advisors tout as an alternative to the Iranian government
Trump Is At War With Iran, Not ISIS
ISIS Drew On MEK Expertise For Terror Attacks On Tehran (Mojahedin Khalq, Rajavi cult)
False Flag Op In Albania Would Drive A Wedge Between The EU And Iran
Albania: MEK rebrands by assassinating unwanted members
https://iran-interlink.org/wordpress/?p=9628
Secret MEK troll factory in Albania uses modern slaves (aka Mojahedin Khalq, MKO, NCRI ,Rajavi cult)
Massoud and Anne Khodabandeh, Balkans Post, September 22 2018:… But, back in Albania if the Al Jazeera interviewer had asked 'how much money does an MEK member make for spending all day, every day as an internet troll?' The answer would be "nothing". MEK does not pay its members anything. It never has and never will. This is because it operates as a cult to which members belong rather than are employed by …
MEK members working in the 'Twitter troll factory' in Manez Camp, Albania
At last the world, and in particular the citizens of Albania, have gained a window into the hidden world of the Iranian Mojahedin Khalq (MEK) camp in Manez, Durres. Back in August, the UK's Channel 4 international editor, Lindsey Hilsum, was blocked from approaching the camp by armed security and MEK zealots. Her report talked about the secrecy which surrounds "the shadowy cult". Since the group arrived in Albania it has aggressively evaded investigation by all outsiders.
The MEK's standard response to requests from journalists for interviews is that they are in collusion with the Iranian regime to demonize and destroy the group and therefore pose a threat to their lives in the camp.
This of course is nonsense. As well as being an insult to their host government and the Albanian security services, this answer is in line with the MEK's history of labelling all and every person who criticises them 'agents of the Iranian regime' to deflect enquiry, investigation and accountability.
Now a report by Al Jazeera has revealed some of what they are trying to hide behind the green curtains surrounding the camp. Al Jazeera said, "in spite of the accusations of disinformation and fake news from both sides", it had "the facts, location and actual personnel explaining the modus operandi of an organized troll factory"; the MEK camp in Albania.
According to this report, MEK has established a Twitter troll factory which, for the past two years, has up to 1,500 MEK members tweeting in support of regime change against Iran.
MEK leader Maryam Rajavi visits members in Albania
In a political context, this is not surprising. The MEK has, according to Ty Joplin of Albawaba, "lobbied itself from terrorist to freedom fighter… Since the downfall of patron Saddam Hussein, the MEK has 'changed from a terrorist military organisation to an intelligence-based propaganda machine'."
In response to the revelation, Iran's Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, made a political point, accusing Twitter of closing the genuine Twitter accounts of Iranians and challenging Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey to look at "actual bots" in Tirana. But while it is fair to bat the ball back to the other side – that's part of his job – politicizing this issue risks diverting attention from the true scandal behind MEK's activities.
"Looking at actual bots" is exactly what Al Jazeera managed to do when it interviewed two former MEK members in Tirana. One described how "several thousand accounts are managed by about 1,000-1,500 MEK members… It was all very well organised and there were clear instructions about what needed to be done." Another said, "Our orders would tell us the hashtags to use in our tweets in order to make them more active."
What is clear is that this kind of activity costs money. And there is no doubt that the MEK has access to a lot of money. The payments made to high profile speakers over many years and the millions of dollars spent on lavish gatherings to mark Nouruz and the armed struggle testify to deep pockets.
But, back in Albania if the Al Jazeera interviewer had asked 'how much money does an MEK member make for spending all day, every day as an internet troll?' The answer would be "nothing". MEK does not pay its members anything. It never has and never will. This is because it operates as a cult to which members belong rather than are employed by. It is a peculiar relationship, but one worth investigating if we are to have a true picture of how a so-called political group can achieve influence at the highest levels of policy in the USA and deceive public opinion.
As scandals involving child labor and slavery in manufacturing, supply and retail have demonstrated, it is vital to look beyond the superficial profits and share prices when examining a company. So too, in the world of politics there must be proper scrutiny over those who seek to influence public opinion and lobby government policy.
To be absolutely clear, MEK members are not paid for their work. So, none of the one and a half thousand internet trolls that Al Jazeera says are working in the MEK click factory are being paid. In fact, no MEK member is paid.
MEK women have suffered years of unpaid labour in Iraq, now they are unpaid click trolls in Albania
The next time anyone encounters MEK enforcers Behzad Saffari, Farid Toutonchi or Jila Deyhim and in Albania, remember they are not being paid for what they do. When parliamentarians in Britain sit with Hossein Abedini and Dowlat Norouzi to condemn Iran, when MEPs and their assistants are harassed by MEK at the EUP, and when lawmakers and researchers meet with Ali Safavi (video at end) and Ali Reza Jafarzadeh in the US, they should be aware that none of them receive a wage for their work.
Of course, this means they do not have savings or a pension and do not pay tax in their host countries like regular workers. But being unpaid is not even the main issue here. MEK members all suffer the deeper problems associated with cultic abuse and the total control over every aspect of their lives, including their thoughts and beliefs.
Two examples: In the case of Somayeh Mohammadi, MEK cannot allow her to leave their camp and meet even for five minutes alone with her parents. She is not trusted to return to them. But they cannot allow her to leave because she knows sensitive information which MEK do not want to be made public. However, the publicity surrounding her case has almost certainly saved her life. Unfortunately, Malek Sharai who 'drowned' in an irrigation channel and whose body was buried without an autopsy was not so lucky. It turns out he was a survivor of the September 1st massacre in Camp Ashraf, Iraq in 2012. Sharai knew exactly what happened that day and who was responsible for the deaths of 53 people.
MEK members live in conditions of modern slavery. They are owned by MEK leader Maryam Rajavi in Paris and are, in turn, being exploited by her backers and advocates.
Albania already has serious problems with mafia gangs and criminals. But this newly imported problem cannot be ignored simply because they are a foreign group hidden away from public scrutiny. It cannot be ignored because the group is supported at the highest levels in the Trump administration. This is a human rights issue and continued exploitation of these victims should not be tolerated – which country condones, let alone legally sanctions the use of slaves? The US pledged money to Albania to de-radicalize and rehabilitate MEK members in Albania as ordinary citizens. It is time now for that to be actioned.
MASSOUD AND ANNE KHODABANDEH
Massoud Khodabandeh is the Director of Middle East Strategy Consultants and has worked long-term with the authorities in Iraq to bring about a peaceful solution to the impasse at Camp Liberty and help rescue other victims of the Mojahedin-e Khalq cult. Khodabandeh co-authored the book 'The Life of Camp Ashraf – Victims of Many Masters' with his wife Anne Singleton.
MEK brings American bomber L. Todd Wood to Albania to show that it is not a terrorist organization but is a baker's organization
Iran's Chameleon Splinter Group: The MEK's Will to Power (aka MKO, NCRI, Rajavi cult …)
Ty Joplin, Albawaba, Jordan, September 21 2018:… "[Massoud] Rajavi always would say that if it was not because of the Internal Revolution the organisation would not exist," Khodabandeh said. "I think he was right but the organisation which existed after these changes is not the first one anymore." According to Khodabandeh, the MEK "has since became the tool for the ones who paid to keep it …
Iran's Chameleon Splinter Group: The MEK's Will to Power
By Ty Joplin
The Mujahideen al-Khalq (MEK) is a group that defies conventional understandings of non-state actors.
MEK at Camp Ashraf (AFP/FILE)
Its revolutionary beliefs were once seated in a Marxist understanding of history mixed with Islamism. Now, they are willing to sell their ideology to the highest bidder; there is evidence to suggest the MEK mirrors the stated beliefs of the state that gives them the most support. As of now, its stated goal is to establish a secular, democratic state in Iran.
However, the only thing is seems genuinely invested in is its leader, Maryam Rajavi, who controls its members so tightly that it has been described as a cult centered around her.
Sitting in a military-style compound in Tirana, Albania the roughly 3,500 members of the MEK are said to be waiting for some unspecified event to become relevant again. That moment may be coming soon.
It is now backed by the U.S. as a tool intended to destabilize the Ayatollah regime in Iran, which both the U.S. and MEK view as a threat.
But what does the group actually believe?
The MEK's Ever-Shifting Ideologies
Iraqi security forces stand watch outside Camp Ashraf in Iraq, the former home of the MEK (AFP/FILE)
Tracing the beginnings of its ideology is easy enough: started in 1965 by a group of radical students at Tehran University, the MEK advocated for a Marxist reading of history mixed with Shia Islam. Iran, controlled by the U.S. and U.K.-installed Shah, emphasized the MEK's Marxist leanings to alienate it from the political discourse of Iran at the time, and targeted the group and its founders.
After suffering a split from the more secular, left-leaning members and the execution of its founders, the MEK steadily aligned itself with the hyper-conservative religious cleric, Ayatollah Khomeini.
However grateful Khomeini may have been for the help of the MEK and other leftist revolutionaries in ousting the Western-backed Shah, he did not plan to include them in his theocratic government.
Their exclusion from Iranian politics and governance pushed the MEK into the fringe, where their first real ideological shift happened: going from idealistic pro-Ayatollah activist group to embattled guerrilla fighters.
The political aims for which they campaigned and fought began to fall by the wayside as the group emphasized militant insurgency and its leader, Massoud Rajavi, began to exert more control over its members.
By killing high-level officials of the ruling party in Iran, the MEK showed its willingness to go after those it saw as obstacles to its own plan to take power, even if those in the way were Iranians.
Thousands of members of the MEK were killed by regime intelligence and security forces, but Saddam Hussein promised to support the group, which likely saved it from being eliminated entirely. The group moved from Iran to a base in Iraq, called Camp Ashraf.
Saddam's move however, led to an about-face for the MEK's guiding principles, and represents the moment it began to be reviled by Iran. By the time Saddam began funding and housing the MEK, he was already steeped into a stalling invasion of Iran. He began to use the MEK as an auxiliary military force against Iran. The MEK, now refocused on destabilizing the Iranian regime as much as it could, obliged and took part of several operations that killed thousands of Iranians.
"The MEK, now refocused on destabilizing the Iranian regime as much as it could, obliged and took part of several operations that killed thousands of Iranians"
Supported by Saddam's air force, the MEK managed to capture and briefly occupy the Iranian town of Mehran on the Iranian border with Iraq. The MEK reportedly stayed in the town even after official Iraqi army forces had left, and though they were eventually pushed back into Iraq, the battle left three to five thousand Iranians dead.
Their most ambitious plan however, hatched by Massoud Rajavi was Operation Mersad. Rajavi ordered an all-out invasion into Iran by MEK forces.
The operation took place at the end of the Iran-Iraq War. Rajavi hoped that his MEK forces, numbering close to 7,000, would be met with a warm welcome by Iranians while he stormed into Tehran to overthrowing the Ayatollah's regime. He thought the task would be simple and that the MEK could easily do it.
He was mistaken.
The MEK's Descent into Being a Cult
Dead MEK fighters in Iran, after the failed Operation Mersad (Wikipedia)
Although he initially made headway with little resistance, the MEK ventured too far deep into Iran, and Iranian helicopters and war planes bombed them, killing thousands. Many others were captured and eventually executed. The plan backfired as the MEK became encircled by Iranian forces.
The group lost nearly half of its fighters, and it limped back to Iraq without a clear vision of where it could go next.
The move to invade Iran cemented the MEK's domestic reputation as a group of rogue militants in the pocket of whomever would fund them, and forever doomed their ability to generate popular support inside the country.
After this incident, Massoud Rajavi began to mold and shape the MEK into a more insular group, one that could be controlled by just a few people, namely, him and his wife, Maryam Rajavi. Throughout the 1980s, Massoud orchestrated what he called an 'ideological revolution,' within the MEK, which forced its members to obey his orders.
But these tools of control became more sinister after Operation Mersad.
"After the failed military operation of 'Forough Javidan' [Operation Mersad]…" Massoud Rajavi ordered all those who lost a spouse to immediately re-marry, Khodabandeh said. On top of that, "within a few months he started a new phase of [the so-called] ideological revolution in which his demand was that everyone has to divorce forever and all the women are now his."
"he [Massoud Rajavi] started a new phase of [the so-called] ideological revolution in which his demand was that everyone has to divorce forever and all the women are now his."
This order reorganized the MEK from being a militant group with some remnants of ideological beliefs, to one where its members were primarily subservient to a person, who dictated every aspect of their lives. Children of MEK members were forcibly taken from their parents and flown out of Iraq, where they were raised in the U.S. and U.K. by sympathizers.
Khodabandeh said he knew of at least one child who was flown out: "I know one of them who changed hands in Canada and U.S. five times. They would register the children for benefits and then would leave them in the street."
"Every time they faced a major defeat like this, in order to retain control of the organization, the leadership became more and more repressive internally and cultish," Trita Parsi, the founder and former president of the National Iranian American Council, said to Al Bawaba in an interview.
Massoud Rajavi also introduced other methods of control, some years before the failed invasion of Iran ever happen. Many of them were intended to prevent further divisions in the group from forming.
One 'session' was called The Cross, where some MEK members were forced to bear a cross on them. Another, called 'Individuality,' forced members to describe their loyalty to Massoud and prove that they were working towards his goals. Of course, members were forced to confess deviant thoughts or actions to MEK leadership as well.
Those who had transgressed Massoud would be punished, sometimes through solitary confinement and public shaming.
Human Rights Watch began looking into the group's treatment of its members, and found members who had been held in solitary confinement for years at a time, and of dissident members being tortured to death in front of others as a way of showing the danger of going against the group.
in order to retain control of the organization, the leadership became more and more repressive internally and cultish
Trita Parsi, National Iranian American Council
The 'Social Division' of the MEK released a statement urging its members to accept this internal, 'ideological revolution,' that was really a kind of ongoing purge of the group.
"To understand this great revolution…is to understand and gain a deep insight into the greatness of our new leadership, meaning the leadership of Massoud and Maryam. It is to believe in them as well as to show ideological and revolutionary obedience of them…By correcting your old work habits and by criticizing your individual as well as collective shortcomings, we shall gain much awareness in confronting our enemies…Report to your commanders and superiors in a comprehensive manner your progress, its results and outcomes that you gain from promoting and strengthening this ideological revolution."
After Massoud Rajavi disappeared in 2003, Maryam took over and continued enforcing cult-like practices on the MEK.
Maryam Rajavi (AFP/FILE)
The group's moved to Tirana, Albania has reportedly done nothing to loosen the hold Maryam has on its members. Trita Parsi views this as a tragic mistake, since the U.S. had the ability to separate its members and give them more freedom; something the U.S. declined to do. Parsi thinks many would have defected if they were given such a chance.
Meanwhile, Tara Sepehri Far, an Iran researcher with the Human Rights Watch told Al Bawaba that there are no signs the MEK's abusive practices against its membership has ended.
"We haven't updated our research after that but we're not aware of remedy that has been paid to victims since then," Far stated. "My understanding is the group still keeps the camp isolated in Albania and doesn't allow independent monitors and journalist to freely report from there."
Former MEK members have told journalists that the group's leadership forces individuals in the Tirana camp to write down their sexual thoughts every day and then read them out loud to others, using shame as a method of control. A leaked Albanian police report assess the MEK as a dangerous group and that there are "reasonable suspicions" that it may be torturing and even killing members trapped inside the Tirana compound today.
"It's not really proper to called them MEK 'members,' they're more or less MEK hostages. They want to leave but they're not allowed to," said Parsi, who has spoken to several families of MEK members in the U.S. who have been fighting for years to reconnect with loved ones stuck in the compound in Albania.
My understanding is the group still keeps the camp isolated in Albania and doesn't allow independent monitors and journalist to freely report from there
Tara Sepehri Far, Human Rights Watch
The MEK's public face is that it is a force for democracy and secular pluralism, though it has little to show for its claim.
The group's official website says, "The PMOI/MEK seeks to replace Iran's religious dictatorship with a secular, pluralistic, democratic government that respects individual freedoms and gender equality."
However, the website also can't help but remind everyone that it is fundamentally a one-person show by naming Maryam Rajavi as "the future President of Iran," having apparently decided the results of a hypothetical election in Iran to be in her favor.
"[Massoud] Rajavi always would say that if it was not because of the Internal Revolution the organisation would not exist," Khodabandeh said.
"I think he was right but the organisation which existed after these changes is not the first one anymore."
The revolutionary beliefs of the MEK were slowly weeded out of its membership and replaced with forced obedience to one person: Maryam Rajavi.
According to Khodabandeh, the MEK "has since became the tool for the ones who paid to keep it going and became a closed dictatorial organisation."
Saudi Arabia Secretly Sent Truckloads of Gold and Rolex Watches to the Iranian MEK (aka Mojahedin Khalq, MKO, NCRI, Rajavi cult …)
Albawaba, Ty Joplin, September 18 2018:… In 1989, a year before Saddam Hussein attacked Kuwait, Khodabandeh and the MEK's leader at the time, Massoud Rajavi, went to Saudi with an escort by Iraq's secret police. "Rajavi was to perform pilgrimage as well as other things. At the time for our return to Iraq, we were presented with two suitcases each, presents from King Abdullah, then crown prince …
Iran destroys 4 overseas terror groups, invites Saudi Arabia to be rational
Saudi's late king Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud (AFP/FILE)
It is widely rumored that Saudi Arabia has been a loyal supporter of the Mujahideen al-Khalq (MEK), an Iranian opposition group which began as a collective of radical students and is now more accurately described as a cult.
There has been no concrete account of Saudi's support for the MEK, until now. In an interview with Al Bawaba, a former top-ranking member of the MEK has provided details of specific transfers of valuables good from Saudi Arabia to the MEK, worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The details are difficult to verify, but nonetheless represent the first comprehensive account of the MEK's partnership with Saudi Arabia.
According to the former MEK member who personally oversaw the transfers, Saudi officials operating within the security apparatus of Turki bin Faisal al Saud, the head of Saudi intelligence at the time, and the late king Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, gave the MEK three tons of solid gold, at least four suitcases of custom Rolex watches and fabric covering the Kaaba, the most holy site in Islam. The transfers were worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Saudi's Gold Transfers to the MEK
Late Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud in 2014 (AFP/FILE)
Massoud Khodabandeh, who used to head security for MEK's top leaders and was one of its most-senior members, described to Al Bawaba a network of smuggling and black market sales that Saudi used to fund the MEK covertly.
Gold and other valuable commodities were be shipped from Saudi Arabia to Baghdad. Then, they would be sold in black markets in Amman, Jordan via Saudi-linked businessmen; the money would go to offshore accounts linked to the MEK, funding their operations.
In 1989, a year before Saddam Hussein attacked Kuwait, Khodabandeh and the MEK's leader at the time, Massoud Rajavi, went to Saudi with an escort by Iraq's secret police. "Rajavi was to perform pilgrimage as well as other things. At the time for our return to Iraq, we were presented with two suitcases each, presents from King Abdullah, then crown prince. They included gold, [and] Rolex watches," Khodabandeh said. These watches were custom-made and had the king's head designed into them.
The MEK, having disavowed personal possessions, removed the king's head from the watches and sold them to black market businessmen in Amman, Jordan.
They were also presented with a piece of a priceless kiswa, a large drape that is adorned over the Kaaba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Kiswas are embroidered with gold and are manufactured at a cost of around $5 million, but the religious and symbolic importance of the fabric makes them much more valuable.
"I was also assigned to bring gold in special lorries," Khodabandeh said.
Aided by two Iraqi and two Saudi representatives, Khodabandeh smuggled three trucks filled with gold bars from Saudi Arabia to Baghdad. He estimated that each truck held about a ton of gold, making the shipment's contemporary worth almost $200 million.
"After a few days I arranged for it to go to Amman to be sold," added Khodabandeh. "We knew a few businessmen who could do this for us and move the money to offshore accounts."
That top Saudi officials, including the late king Abdullah who was crown prince at the time, was funding a Shia militant group complicates the narrative that Saudi was exclusively exporting a hyper-conservative brand of Sunni Islam, called Wahhabism, around the world to combat Shi'ism. In looking to destabilize the Iranian regime, Saudi appeared more than willing to funnel millions of dollars worth of goods to the Shia MEK.
"That top Saudi officials, including the late king Abdullah who was crown prince at the time, was funding a Shia militant group complicates the narrative"
Khodabandeh noted that some of the money received from its dealings with Saudi was for military vehicles.
Through the Saudi-linked businessmen in Amman, "we bought large fleets of Toyota semi-military vehicles and many other logistical needs."
Other Sources of MEK Funding: Saddam and the U.S.
MEK leader Maryam Rajavi speaking to a crowd of supporters (AFP/FILE)
During much of the 1980s and 1990s, the MEK was sheltered and supported by Saddam Hussein, who co-opted the group and used it as a paramilitary force for his own geopolitical agenda, which included a war against Kurds and Iran. Under the orders of Saddam, the MEK killed thousands of Iranians in the Iran-Iraq war, cementing their reputations as traitors to the Iranian people.
Khodabandeh told Al Bawaba that, in addition to receiving regular payment from Saddam, the MEK was funneled money from Iraqi oil that was exported to the U.K.
The MEK also garnered a significant amount of money from fraud and money laundering activities around the world.
A massive FBI investigation into the group's finances in 2004 revealed a complex web of front organizations disguised as charities that were MEK revenue generators. Fraud and laundering schemes were found all over Europe and the U.S.,
From Washington D.C., to Tampa, Dallas, Los Angeles and even London, Stockholm and Paris, the MEK operated "cells" that took part in fraud schemes and fake charities.
One such fake charity was called the Committee for Human Rights. MEK members posed as representatives of the so-called Committee for Human Rights, seeking donations for the medical treatment of starving Iranian refugee children. The donations received were then laundred via Turkey back to the main base in Iraq, where they were used "to fund MEK's terrorist operation" according to the report.
To smuggle in MEK members to the United States, which listed the group as a foreign terrorist organization at the time, the organization forged identity and immigration documents.
An MEK gathering in Paris, France (AFP/FILE)
In 2012, it was delisted as a terror group and recruited by the U.S. for use in destabilizing the Iranian regime. The U.S. paid $20 million to the U.N. refugee agency to transfer thousands of MEK members from Iraq to Tirana, Albania. The U.S. also gave Albania funds to build a military-style facility for the MEK, in which it is currently holed up.
The U.S. also "allocated a budget of 10 million dollars for the purpose of a 'de-radicalization' program to dismantle MEK as an organisation and sort out the members," according to Khodabandeh. But the Trump administration halted the program.
The contemporary MEK is almost unrecognizable from its founding principles.
What began as a radical, anti-Shah student movement in Tehran, the MEK morphed into an anti-Ayatollah guerrilla group when it was forced from the Iranian political scene, then it became a pro-Saddam militia operating in Iraq killing Iranians and Kurds. Now, it is an asset by the U.S. President Donald Trump, whose advisors think it can be wielded against the current Iranian regime.
"There is a viable opposition to the rule of the Ayatollahs," Trump's National Security Advisor John Bolton proudly announced to a conference hall full of MEK members bussed in to the annual gathering from their compound. "And that opposition is centered in this room today."
The group's shifting alliances closely align with its sources of funding, making the group a kind of quasi-mercenary force, although the group has not engaged in combat in years.
Turki bin Faisal al Saud, who was directing Saudi's intelligence at the time Khodabandeh was assigned to smuggle Saudi goods into Iraq for the MEK's benefit, has since become an outspoken advocate for the MEK.
"Your efforts to confront this regime are legitimate, and your struggle to rescue all sectors of the Iranian society… from the oppression of the Velayat-e Faqih rule, as was said by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, is legitimate and an imperative," bin Faisal told thousands of MEK members at an annual conference for the group in Paris in 2017.
"Therefore, advance with God's blessings."
Khodabandeh said that bin Faisal replaced Saddam as the main backer of the group. "I would say that after the fall of Saddam, the MEK which was then being run by Massoud under the patronage of Saddam, changed to the organisation run by Maryam under the patronage of Prince Turki bin Faisal Al Saud."
"It changed from a terrorist military organisation to an intelligence-based propaganda machine."
Who are the MEK? How One Iranian Group Lobbied Itself From Terrorist to Freedom Fighter
Ty Joplin, Albawaba, September 16 2018:…MEK were lifted out of Iraq and into a new base in Tirana, Albania. Now that the average age of the MEK's members is around 55 or 60, "it is fair to say the members have nowhere to go but to stay," and watch the organization slowly fade away, Khodabandeh said. "The only alternative for them is suicide. Especially the ones who have joined following an idea." …
Published September 13th, 2018 – 12:22 GMT
MEK leader Maryam Rajavi (AFP/FILE)
A little ways outside the center of Tirana, Albania lies a military-style base surrounded by high walls and tight security.
What makes the compound one of the most unique in the world, is that its walls may be keeping its inhabitants in, rather than keeping any intruders out. Inside are thousands of members of the Mujahideen al-Khalq (MEK), an Iranian organization that was deemed a terror group by much of the world, only to be quietly re-marketed as a peaceful, democratic organization.
Now, it is considered a vital strategic partner by U.S. President Donald Trump and his foreign policy team who hope that the MEK will one day storm Tehran, overthrow the Ayatollah's regime and take the reigns of power.
But who are the MEK? No one seems to know.
That question is nearly impossible to answer, not least because the MEK has shifted its own identity so many times that former members cannot recognize the group as a coherent body anymore. Tightly controlled by its leader, Maryam Rajavi, many who have studied the group call it a cult. Iranians call them hypocrites for becoming a pro-Saddam militia that killed thousands of Iranians in the 1980s. Trump's White House call them the last viable hope of a Free Iran.
"it is considered a vital strategic partner by U.S. President Donald Trump and his foreign policy team who hope that the MEK will one day storm Tehran, overthrow the Ayatollah's regime and take the reigns of power."
To understand the MEK, Al Bawaba spoke with Massoud Khodabandeh, who was one of the groups most senior leaders for decades, before he escaped and renounced what it had become.
From Students to Guerrilla Fighters
Maryam and Massoud Rajavi of the MEK (AFP/FILE)
"I had joined MEK with idealistic aims and revolutionary ideas," Khodabandeh told Al Bawaba in an interview. "I was a teenager then."
Formed in 1965 by a group of students from Tehran University, the MEK was organized against the rule of the Shah, whose government was installed by the U.K. and U.S. to ensure Iranian oil flowed to the West. Its left-leaning members initially mixed a Marxist understanding of history with Islam, but were targeted by the Shah's secret intelligence, the SAVAK.
Many of its members were jailed and executed, and the group underwent a series of internal rifts. Eventually, Massoud Rajavi rose to lead the group, and the MEK allied itself with the revolutionary cleric, Ayatollah Khomeini, who was quickly positioning himself as the top contender for the Shah's job as ruler of Iran.
Khomeini,a far-right Islamist, graciously accepted the help of the MEK, but had no plans to share power with them. When he did seize power in the 1979 Revolution, he disavowed the MEK and its leadership, driving them out of the political scene. They quickly transformed into guerrilla fighters battling the Ayatollah regime inside Iran.
In June 1981, the MEK killed 70 high-ranking members of the Ayatollah's Islamic Republican Party. The bombing also reportedly injured Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is now the current ruler of Iran, permanently affecting his right arm.
Then two months later, they bombed the offices of Mohammad-Javad Bahonar, who was Prime Minister, and Mohammad-Ali Rajai, who was the president at the time, killing both.
Khomeini then set his sights on expelling the MEK from Iran; most of the members fled to Iraq while its leadership went to Paris.
In Iraq, Saddam Hussein immediately found a use for the MEK, and took them under his wing. He allowed them to build a new base for themselves called Camp Ashraf just north of Baghdad in 1986, and began funding the group. Saddam was fighting a brutal war with Iran at the time, and deployed the MEK as a militia against Iran's army and its Revolutionary Guards.
Under the command of Saddam and Massoud Rajavi, the MEK killed thousands of Iranians and then was used to violently suppress Iraqi Kurds, something Khodabandeh thought utterly contrary to the original ideals of the group, which he thought to be emancipatory.
"After years, especially after seeing the situation in Iraq and the role of MEK in Saddam's army, it was obvious that not only had that aim gone out of the window, but the force was now a force for suppression."
As one of its senior members who helped create international branches in Europe and lead its security, Khodabandeh thought he could convince the rest of the leadership to stick to its founding principles.
"I tried for years to somehow influence the direction with no success whatsoever," he said.
By the late 1980s, the group was universally reviled in Iran for its role in the Iran-Iraq war, and was firmly part of Saddam's network of militias he controlled. Its goal of revolution in Tehran seemed distant and abstract compared to the funds and arms it was getting for killing Iranians and Kurds.
"By the late 1980s, the group was universally reviled in Iran for its role in the Iran-Iraq war, and was firmly part of Saddam's network of militias he controlled"
Because of its loyalty to Saddam, and its assassination of six American citizens, including three members of the military, the U.S. designated the MEK a Foreign Terror Organization (FTO) in 1997, and much of the world followed suit shortly thereafter.
How the MEK Got Off the Terror List
(AFP/FILE)
For most organizations, to be deemed a terrorist group spells doom for its ability to network and function internationally. They are either treated as pariahs, or actively targeted by states to be eliminated.
The MEK stands as one of only groups who successfully lobbied itself off the list, paying out millions of dollars in a tri-pronged campaign that included donating to influential U.S. politicians, saturating U.S. magazines with pro-MEK advertisements and convincing the U.S. military and political establishment that it was an asset rather than a security threat.
Its removal from the terror list began in 2003, when the U.S. invaded and occupied Iraq, ousting Saddam Hussein and battling against his militias. The MEK was perceived as just another pro-Saddam militant organization, and were targeted as such by the U.S.
But then something strange happened.
After a brief period of conflict, the MEK called for a ceasefire and began discussions with U.S. officials about its status. According to a RAND report, the MEK's negotiators convinced their U.S. counterparts that they had actually offered to help fight on the U.S.' behalf before the invasion and that its members were U.S.-educated.
Both were false. They also told the U.S. officials that they hadn't killed any U.S. forces, even though the MEK had killed at least one member of the special forces. With limited knowledge of the group, the U.S. officials were convinced and accepted the MEK's terms of the ceasefire, which included the group keeping its weapons.
The MEK then quickly built trust with the U.S., and was treated less like a terror organization and more like a oppressed minority. For their part, the MEK quickly ditched its friendship with Saddam and replaced him with the U.S., who was busy fighting an insurgency and struggling to establish a new government in Iraq.
Despite being listed still as a terror group, then-Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld moved to grant the MEK the status of '"protected persons" under the Fourth Geneva Convention in June 2004, effectively placing it under the protective custody of the U.S. The U.N., International Red Cross and Rumsfeld's own department disagreed with the decision, but it was final. Rather than prisoners of war to be prosecuted, the MEK had been granted special privileges.
The U.S. also provided the MEK with its own office space in a forward operating base near Camp Ashraf; a move that further signalled the U.S.' comfort with the MEK. They also openly prosthelytized to U.S. troops and formal requests to stop them were denied.
The MEK then set about the task of convincing U.S. policy makers that they could be a valuable asset in the ongoing geopolitical struggle against Iran, who was considered one of the key players in the so-called 'Axis of Evil.'
A Remarkable Lobbying Effort
Rudy Giuliani with MEK leader Maryam Rajavi (AFP/FILE)
In Washington D.C., the MEK went about becoming a permanent fixture in the social and political spheres. According to Trita Parsi, the founder and current president of the National Iranian American Council, the MEK gained the favor of many policy makers.
"Even when the MEK was on the terrorist list, the group operated freely in Washington. Its office was in the National Press Club building, its Norooz receptions on Capitol Hill were well attended by lawmakers and Hill staff alike, and plenty of congressmen and women from both parties spoke up regularly in the MEK's favor. In the early 2000s, in a move that defied both logic and irony, Fox News even hired a senior MEK lobbyist as an on-air terrorism commentator," Parsi writes.
At a time when anti-terror rhetoric was reaching fever levels, and the U.S. was passing highly controversial laws that put the U.S. in a kind of secure, lockdown mode, with warrantless wiretapping, systematic searches, surveillance programs and clandestine torture sites becoming the norm, the MEK was in good standing with the U.S., as terrorist groups go. Although some in the Department of State wanted them shipped back to Iran, and recognized that many of their members were responsible for war crimes, officials in the Department of Defense sheltered them and began using them as a tool against Iran.
The MEK also wanted to win over the hearts and minds of everyday Americans, who likely had not heard of the small, nascent group but may have been concerned about peace and democracy, which the MEK now claimed were their guiding principles.
The group spent hundreds of thousands of dollars from 2005-2012 taking out ads in major newspapers, including The New York Times and the Washington Post. Their ads were designed to look more like petitions or news stories, and they blended into everyday reading.
"35,000 Iranians Rally in Brussels," one advertisement headline read, seeking to show that the group had popular support. "250 Parliamentarians, 50 Jurists Condemn . . . Conspiracies against Iranian Mojahedin in Iraq, Call for Removal of Terror Tag from PMOI," read another.
One full-page ad in The New York Times called for the group to be returned to Camp Ashraf after many had been forcibly transferred to the less-secure Camp Liberty.
(MEK's ad in The New York Times)
To be sure, the group was under attack by Iraqi forces during the mid-2000s; tens of them died and hundreds were wounded in a series of strikes against Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty.
The MEK paid for a vast array of U.S. bipartisan support. Among its public allies, even when it was a terror group, was R. James Woolsey and Porter J. Goss, both former CIA heads, former president George W. Bush's homeland security chief Tom Ridge, Obama's first national security advisor, James Jones, former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, popular Vermont Democrat Howard Dean. Its other allies included Democrat Congressman John Lewis, former FBI Director Louis Freeh, former Representative Patrick Kennedy and retired General Wesley Clark among others.
The ad campaigns and tireless lobbying efforts worked.
In Sept 2012, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the group was coming off the terror list. A Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher praised the decision, saying "The lives of hundreds of the M.E.K. misplaced persons could well be saved as result." He also insisted that the group seeks "a secular, peaceful, and democratic government," in Iran.
The MEK had convinced enough powerful people that they were a genuinely potent opposition force that could offset the power of the Ayatollah's regime in Iran.
The de-listing also open the way for them to expand their lobbying efforts in the U.S., which they have done. Rudy Giuliani regularly attends their annual gatherings, getting paid tens of thousands of dollars to do so, as does current National Security Advisor John Bolton, who was reportedly paid at least $180,000by the group in 2017. Other politicians donated to include Barack Obama and John McCain.
With U.S. help, the MEK were lifted out of Iraq and into a new base in Tirana, Albania where they reside now.
Now that the average age of the MEK's members is around 55 or 60, "it is fair to say the members have nowhere to go but to stay," and watch the organization slowly fade away, Khodabandeh said.
"The only alternative for them is suicide. Especially the ones who have joined following an idea."
Farid Totounchi (Real name: Mahoutchi) Commander of Saddam's Private army forcing Somayeh Mohammadi to do a "Forced confession" session in Terror camp in Albania
Canadian family asks Top Channel's "Fiks Fare for help: "MEK mujahedeens took our daughter"
Saudi Arabia's ambivalent relationship to terrorism
Remember.Mojahedin Khalq (MKO, MEK, Rajavi cult) was one of the excuses of US attacking Iraq
MEK members residing in Albania hit British journalist, local media reports (Mojahedin Khalq, Maryam Rajavi Cult, NCRI …)
MEPs discuss Mojahedine-E Khalq (MEK) Threat in #Albania
The MEK's dirty past includes the anti-Imperialist inspired murder of six Americans in pre-revolution Iran which it later celebrated in songs and publications
Mojahed Khalq Brother John Bolton has a memory lapse
Introducing Maryam Rajavi as a human rights activist is the wrong tool for the wrong job
The Life of Camp Ashraf Mojahedin-e Khalq – Victims of Many Masters By Anne Singleton and Massoud Khodabandeh
Massoud Khodabandeh, Huffington Post, November 12 2016:… In particular, Rudi Giuliani, John Bolton and Newt Gingrich. Putting aside their weak personalities as well as their individual neoconservative agendas, the common thread which links these names together is their decade long support for the Mojahedin Khalq terrorist organisation (also known as Saddam's Private Army or Rajavi cult). It is certain that …
Massoud Khodabandeh: The Iranian Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) and Its Media Strategy:
Methods of Information Manufacture
Massoud Khodabandeh, Huffington Post: Can Albania Meet its Obligations and De-radicalize an Influx of Terrorists into Europe?
Link to the source (Huffington Post)
Link to the source (Top Topic)
John Bolton speaks at an MEK rally
As the reverberations of the American election echo and ripple across America and around the world, some of its repercussions are already being felt – demonstrations, racist attacks, global market and currency fluctuations, the Russian reaction and more. But as President-elect Trump considers who to appoint to the most influential positions in his Administration, the hopeful candidates may want to consider repercussions which may arise from their own backgrounds.
In particular, Rudi Giuliani, John Bolton and Newt Gingrich. Putting aside their weak personalities as well as their individual neoconservative agendas, the common thread which links these names together is their decade long support for the Mojahedin Khalq terrorist organisation(also known as Saddam's Private Army or Rajavi cult).
Newt Gingrich bows to Maryam Rajavi
It is certain that neither these three hopefuls nor the MEK believed they would make a comeback. Rudi Giuliani, John Bolton and Newt Gingrich are not Republican favourites. But apparently, with the election of Donald Trump, their time has come. The MEK also didn't think Trump could win and therefore advertised for Hillary Clinton in their websites.
Rudi Giuliani with Maryam Rajavi
In American politics, such things can be quickly glossed over, dismissed as political strategies. But Donald Trump does need to take this past into consideration. What Rudi Giuliani, John Bolton and Newt Gingrich do not know is that the MEK have a full record of all their meetings, dialogue and discussions. After being tutored by Saddam's Intelligence service the MEK learned to film and record every conversation with an external person, particularly people like Rudi Giuliani, on every occasion whether in the US, Paris or Europe, even during dinner gatherings. This means that every time they hosted speakers and supporters in Paris or America these meetings were recorded. The MEK is now in possession of hundreds of hours of audio/video recordings as well as emails and phone calls of individuals like these three who have been mingling openly over the past decade with people they took to be ordinary oppositionists, but were in fact trained agents of the MEK and Saddam. The recordings can be edited and published by the MEK to suit the time, need and place.
John Bolton with Mojahedin Khalq operatives
The MEK's hope was, of course, that by recording these private conversations they could be used in future to pressurise or even blackmail individuals if needed. They perhaps didn't have any hope then that these individuals would reach such high office. As such this is a national security concern for the US. No one knows what is in the tapes and no one knows how these three, who have done everything for a fee in the past, would be able to stop the MEK from exposing them.
These three entered into paid lobbying for a group such as Mojahedin Khalq knowingly (perhaps not envisaging a day which they could be back in the game) accepting the end of their careers as officials. If they are now brought back and appointed to key positions, US policy could simply be taken hostage by a notorious terrorist organisation such as the Mojahedin Khalq.
Even if these three gave assurances that the paid support they gave to Maryam Rajavi and her terrorist cult Mojahedin Khalq has been done purely on straightforward lobbying grounds, no one can be certain that a decade of recordings and document gathering by the MEK would not end up producing enough leverage to highjack the national security of the United States and or its allies across the globe.
President Trump (and security advisors) simply can't afford to take such a risk with the future of the country.
*** Massoud Khodabandh, Huffington post Nov. 2015:
Syrian Negotiations Won't Provide One Winner But Will Ensure Violence Is Absolute Loser Albanian citizens fearful of radicalised Mojahedin Khalq neighbours deserve more information
Maryam Rajavi — MEK Propaganda Queen — Advertises Her Services For Iran's Enemies
Massoud Khodabandeh, Huffington Post, July 08 2016:… Clearly this message is not aimed at Iranians. The clamour for regime change in Iran does not emanate from inside the country in spite of its many social, civic and political problems. Who then is Maryam Rajavi's constituency? From whom is she hoping to garner support?Many constituencies outside Iran wish fervently for its destruction. It is enlightening that Maryam Rajavi's …
What does it mean when we say ISIS operates as a mind control cult?
Co-authored by Anne Khodabandeh
The Middle East is in turmoil. Deaths and destruction are a daily occurrence throughout the region. Families flee their homes in fear, forced into an uncertain future. No end is in sight. Yet into this calamitous scenario a slick, sophisticated terrorist recruiter's advert has popped up which ISIS itself could learn from.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) website carries a glamorous advertising campaign for a Grand Gathering. Surrounded by glitzy pictures of flag-waving youth, the central focus of this gathering is 'Our pledge: regime change'.
Well, we all know what that means. Don't we? Apparently not. Because this advertising doesn't reflect the destruction wrought in Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen. Here is no promise of jihad and the caliphate. It looks very much like a carnival. Which is exactly what it is – a show. So, what is meant by the promise of regime change?
The first port of call is to understand that the NCRI is just another name for the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) which was also known as the National Liberation Army of Iran (NLA).
Back in 1994, MEK leader Massoud Rajavi tasked his wife Maryam to leave Iraq for America in order to regain political recognition of the Mojahedin Khalq as 'the' Iranian opposition which had been lost when he refused to abandon Saddam Hussein during the First Gulf war.
Refused entry to the USA as the leader of a terrorist entity Maryam instead took up residence in France as a refugee. But instead of meeting politicians to talk about how the MEK could overthrow the Iranian regime, she discovered she could simply create the illusion of support by paying both audience and speakers. She discovered a talent for dressing up, holding fancy dinner parties and talking about her cult ideology.
To create the appearance of a willing audience for her views, she recruited a rag-tag following of Iranian economic refugees who would happily turn up when paid for their services. She paid for feminists from North America, Europe and Scandinavia to visit Auvers-sur-Oise and attend dinner parties. She posed in her hijab to speak about her version of feminism to these western women; carefully spelling it out for them that they would never really understand what feminism is until they understood her husband Massoud Rajavi.
When Massoud recalled her to Iraq in 1997 she had spent a third of the total MEK budget and had no political support to show for it. She had lost around half the loyal MEK members who had defected whilst in Europe. With morale at an all-time low, Maryam was forced to retreat to Iraq with what remained of her personnel and leave the western bases in the hands of largely uneducated paid 'supporters'.
When allied forces next invaded Iraq in 2003 Maryam Rajavi again fled to France. This time, as luck would have it, western politics was focused on curtailing Iran's nuclear programme which it insisted was aimed at creating a nuclear weapon. The MEK's services as propaganda experts were just what was needed, ensuring the MEK's ostensible survival as an opposition group.
But in reality the MEK was already in terminal decline. Its fighting forces, disarmed in 2003, are currently being transferred from Iraq to Albania by the UNHCR to begin a process of de-radicalisation and reintegration back into normal society. Nobody expects veterans with an average age of sixty to wage the terrorism of thirty years ago. Disarmament also allowed American experts to investigate years of complaints about human rights and cultic abuses inside the MEK. As long as the MEK was being used to muddy the waters of the nuclear negotiations, such details could be glossed over. But since last year when agreement was reached, the MEK's murky past can no longer be dismissed.
The main reason, of course, is that the new theme for challenging Iran in the international community is based on the country's dismal human rights record. But Maryam Rajavi has her own well documented human rights abuse dossier to answer for. The MEK, under whatever name it is used, is simply the wrong tool to use to demonise Iran.
Beyond this, the MEK is not the popular opposition its own advertising claims it to be. The group is almost universally despised among Iranians both inside the country and in the diaspora. Not only did the MEK fight alongside Saddam Hussein's army during the devastating eight-year Iran-Iraq war, but the MEK's anti-Iran role in the nuclear negotiations hit a nerve with most ordinary Iranians who regarded support for their country's right to nuclear technology as an issue ofnationalism rather than politics.
Maryam Rajavi cannot get support from Iranians unless it is paid for. Nor can Maryam Rajavi deign to share a platform with any other Iranian opposition personality. So this year Maryam Rajavi will again do what she does best; pay audience and speakers alike to give the illusion of support.
So, back to the recent advertising campaign. Any publicity campaign will be successful if it is newsworthy. Maryam, however, simply churns out the same scenario ad infinitum. Starting with describing a terrible situation in Iran – based on news items that can be gleaned from any serious reporting outlet – she then proposes a ten-point plan for Iran, approved this year by Italian parliamentarians. And then she promises regime change.
Clearly this message is not aimed at Iranians. The clamour for regime change in Iran does not emanate from inside the country in spite of its many social, civic and political problems. Who then is Maryam Rajavi's constituency? From whom is she hoping to garner support?
Many constituencies outside Iran wish fervently for its destruction. It is enlightening that Maryam Rajavi's websites are home to a bizarre mixture of anti-Shia, anti-Iran, anti-Syria, items which reflect very closely the views of neocons, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Maryam Rajavi is not promising regime change, she is advertising her services as a propaganda queen.
Follow Massoud Khodabandeh on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ma_khodabandeh
2017/07/24 Mojahedin Khalq (MEK) presence in Albania highlights security risks for Europe
Massoud Khodabandeh, Balkans Post, July 23 2017:… Although the MEK are experts at intimidation and propaganda, in reality the expulsion of the MEK from Europe should be neither controversial nor unexpected. No government in Europe supports the presence of extremists in their midst and the MEK has a long history of extremist behaviour and messaging. The self-immolations in western capitals are an example of their actual behaviour …
2017/07/08 Radicalisation Awareness (Presentation at the ICSA Conference, Bordeaux, July 2017)
Anne Khodabandeh (Singleton), Open minds, July 08 2017:… Anne Khodabandeh. After twenty years in the terrorist cult Mojahedin-e Khalq, Anne (with her husband Massoud Khodabandeh) established the English language www.iran-interlink.org website in 2001 to expose the group as a cult and support former members. Anne works with families of MEK campaigning to rescue their loved ones. Anne has written extensively …
2017/06/28 MEP Gérard Deprez claims 265 parliamentarians support Rajavi's MEK. Really?
Massoud Khodabandeh,, Huffpost, June 28 2017:… Like many statements and petitions over the years which mention the MEK this looks like fake news. Anyway, it would have been much easier to pass this off as genuine if Deprez had also published the names of the 265 signatories. As parliamentarians, it is doubtful they would feel endangered by publicly announcing their views in this way. Unless, of course, they had spotted the …
2017/06/27 Under President Macron, France can play a pivotal role in Western relations with Iran
Massoud Khodabandeh, Huffpost, June 27 2017:… Perhaps the time is finally ripe for a new appraisal of what zero tolerance means for France. The MEK's messages promoting violent regime change should no longer be tolerated. President Emmanuel Macron's new centrist movement has won a large majority in the French parliament giving him a strong hand to play. He already revealed himself to be a shrewd and …
2017/06/20 ISIS Drew On MEK Expertise For Terror Attacks On Tehran (Mojahedin Khalq, Rajavi cult)
Massoud Khodabandeh, Iranian.com, June 20 2017:… The following piece has been written by somebody I know well. He does not want his real name to be used because that would jeopardize the sensitive nature of his current work in counter terrorism in Europe – Massoud Khodabandeh… As a former member of the Mojahedin Khalq terrorist organization (MEK), I followed the news of terrorist attacks on Tehran with shame, guilt and anger. My shame and guilt stem …
2017/06/02 Debate in the European Parliament 'What is to be done about the Iranian Mojahedin Khalq (MEK)?'
Massoud Khodabandeh, Huffpost, June 02 2017:… The meeting was organised by Ana Gomes, SND (Portugal) and seconded by Marietje Schaake, ALDE (Netherlands) and Michael Gahler, Christian Democrats (Germany). Two expert speakers were invited to address the meeting: Nicola Pedde, Director Institute for Global Studies, Italy and Massoud Khodabandeh, Director Middle East Strategy Consultants, UK. …
2017/05/18 Albania's Anti-Trafficking Coordinator Elona Gjebrea praises Maryam Rajavi for keeping modern slaves in Tirana
Massoud and Anne Khodabandeh, Huffpost, May 18 2017:… In Albania, Elona Gjebrea also has close ties to the United States on the issue of people trafficking and slavery. The US embassy in Tirana, Albania acknowledged the State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons report in June 2016 by saying, "The United States appreciates the close cooperation with the Government of Albania, civil society and especially National …
2017/05/08 MEK's Maryam Rajavi blackmails Albania to become the new 'Saddam regime' for them.
Massoud Khodabandeh, Top topic, May 08 2017:… Rajavi then publishes these alongside letters signed by American personalities in support of the MEK. The letters from the Americans are addressed to the Albanian Prime Minister and bear the familiar hallmark of MEK authorship. (One letter published by the MEK is signed in blue ink. We can only speculate how the MEK obtained the original letter which should have been sent directly from the Americans to the Albanian PM!) …
2017/03/04 Michael Ware discovers Mojahedin Khalq, MEK hasn't abandoned belief in armed struggle
National Geographic, March 04 2017:… Leading MEK members squirm under the knowing gaze of Michael Ware. Watch the shifty looks and glances as the MEK representatives try to lie about their true intentions. They admit to wanting regime change, but claim to be pacifists. Ware asks 'Why does a political organization still need to have a para-military organization?' He then cleverly gets them to …
2017/02/16 Clarification: Trump-Iranian Exiles story (Mojahedin Khalq, MEK, MKO, Rajavi cult)
Associated Press, February 16 2017:… The group at one point successfully infiltrated the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, according to a State Department report. And a series of bombings attributed to the MEK accompanied visits by presidents Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter to Iran, including one to target an American cultural center. In 1973, MEK assailants wearing motorcycle helmets shot dead U.S. Army Lt. …
2017/02/15 Fake News, Alternative Facts and Opinions – MEK succumbs to the American disease of hysteria
Iran Interlink, February 15 2017:… The following OpEd by MEK advocate Col. Wes Martin was published first in The Hill, followed by Mojahedin Khalq's "Iran Probe" and the "NCRI" websites. Iran Interlink has published it here as indication of how hysteria has become the new normal in American published writing. A form of madness appears to have infected US politics and now all and sundry are dancing …
2017/02/07 Trump's MEK version of events won't secure victory against Iran, lets ISIS off the hook
Massoud Khodabandeh, Huffington Post, February 07 2017:… He also signals that his war is not with ISIS but with the country Iran. Donald Trump rose to victory in part on the promise to take on ISIS and defeat the group. Yet ISIS cannot be defeated except by a coalition of forces that includes Iran. The facts on the ground in Syria and Iraq demonstrate unequivocally that ISIS forces in Aleppo and Mosul have been defeated largely due to the involvement
2017/01/01 Albania: John Kerry brought terrorists (Mojahedin Khalq, MEK, Rajavi cult), John Brennan warns of their risk
Gazeta Impakt, Albania, Translated by Iran Interlink, January 01 2017:… According to Fatos Klosi, former director of the National Intelligence Service, the American CIA chief has warned Albania that Donald Trump will renounce support for the MEK terrorists and it will be the Albanian Government itself which must deal with internal security and must confront a group trained militarily from the time of Saddam Hussein …
2016/12/24 Mojahedin Khalq (MEK, Rajavi cult)'s Fake Intelligence On Aleppo Only Hinders Fact-finding Bodies Finding The Truth
Massoud Khodabandeh, Huffington Post, December 24 2016:… That can only happen if journalists and investigatory bodies (human rights, nuclear experts, war crimes, etc) are able to base their work on facts and not the fake and fictionalised fantasies of stooges like the MEK, which are clearly designed to misinform on these issues. The information laundry cycle is not difficult to follow – the Washington Times takes its report …
2016/11/12 National Security: Could Maryam Rajavi (Mojahedin Khalq) blackmail her friends in high places – Rudi Giuliani, John Bolton and Newt Gingrich
Massoud Khodabandeh, Huffington Post, November 12 2016:… In particular, Rudi Giuliani, John Bolton and Newt Gingrich. Putting aside their weak personalities as well as their individual neoconservative agendas, the common thread which links these names together is their decade long support for the Mojahedin Khalq terrorist organisation (also known as Saddam's Private Army or Rajavi cult). It is certain that … .
2016/10/30 Albania: Mojahedin Khalq (Rajavi cult) using slave labour to profit from business
Iran Interlink, October 30 2016:… Local observers in Tirana are reporting that the Mojahedin Khalq cultic terror group (MEK) is buying and creating several sandwich and kebab shops in the city and is using the MEK members to work in these fast-food businesses. On the surface this may look like a positive move. In an article titled 'Albania: What would a de-radicalization program for the Mojahedin Khalq involve', it was …
2016/10/16 Albania: What would a de-radicalization program for the Mojahedin Khalq (Rajavi cult) involve
Anne and Massoud Khodabandeh, Iran Interlink, October 16 2016:… In spite of American promises, no de-radicalisation programme is in place to deal with over 2500 members of the Mojahedin Khalq terrorist group who have relocated to Tirana from Iraq. The MEK has a long history of violent and criminal activity. This has not stopped now they are in Tirana. Unless the Albanian government introduces its own programme, it must accept …
2016/10/09 Albanian citizens fearful of radicalised Mojahedin Khalq neighbours deserve more information
Anne and Massoud Khodabandeh, Huffington post (and Top Topic), October 09 2016:… For the local citizens, mystery surrounds their arrival and their lifestyle. Should these secretive and covert neighbours be treated with suspicion or kindness? At a local level, the first thing neighbouring families need to be aware of is that among all MEK members, sexual relations have been banned for over 25 years. This means there are no marriages or children or young people in the organisation. More troubling …
2016/07/14 Grand Controversy as MEK can't prove leader Massoud Rajavi is dead or alive
Massoud & Anne Khodabandeh, Huffington Post, July 14 2016:… Whether Rajavi is already dead or now killable is not known – only he can answer this – but he and his whole organisation are certainly now, body and soul, in the capable hands of the Saudi Prince. If he is still alive, Rajavi's only role is to act as go-between to instruct his wife what she must do on behalf of the Saudis. If he is dead
2016/07/08 Maryam Rajavi — MEK Propaganda Queen — Advertises Her Services For Iran's Enemies
Massoud Khodabandeh, Huffington Post, July 08 2016:… Clearly this message is not aimed at Iranians. The clamour for regime change in Iran does not emanate from inside the country in spite of its many social, civic and political problems. Who then is Maryam Rajavi's constituency? Fro
2016/07/03 Maryam Rajavi – MEK propaganda queen – puts out again for Iran's enemies
Massoud Khodabandeh, Toptopic, July 03 2016:… So, back to the recent advertising campaign. Any publicity campaign will be successful if it is newsworthy. Maryam, however, simply churns out the same scenario ad infinitum. Starting with describing a terrible situation in Iran – based on news items that can be gleaned from any serious report
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Anne Khodabandeh ICSA Conference : Mapping the Cult Landscape
BY Anne Khodabandeh, 2019/07/17
Anne Khodabandeh (Singleton), Open Minds, July 17 2019:... The question is, can we bring cult leaders to court for cultic abuse? The argument that the behaviours exhibited by cults cannot be brought into a legislative framework is patently false when we consider that similar 'psychological' behaviours have been written into law. Examples are the Coercive Control Act of 2015, the…
Giuliani's Cuckoo Praise for Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK)
BY The American Conservative, 2019/07/17
Daniel Larison, The American Conservative, July 17 2019:... President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani has joined buckraking forces with former Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT), speaking at an event in Albania for a bizarre, cultish Iranian group that fashions itself as a government-in-exile for the Islamic Republic. Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) — once designated as a foreign terrorist group — hosted the…
In Albania Shedding Light on Bizarre Behaviour of MEK Cult
BY The Guardian, 2019/07/16
Shaun Walker in Tirana, The Guardian, July 16 2019:... For example, you would have to say: 'I saw a girl on television and I got an erection,' or 'This morning I masturbated,'" said Hassan Heyrani, one of the defectors. He said there was no specific punishment for such admissions except scolding and embarrassment. "If you admit to it too often…
MEK Rajavi not a valid alternative for Iran
BY Press TV, 2019/07/16
Reza Alghurabi, Press TV, July 16 2019:... All of the Iranian Americans at the meeting, however, knew the group well and detested it. They knew its murderous history in Iran." wrote Limbert. "They knew that a MEK-ruled Iran would bring them all the horrors of Stalinism—gulags, one-man (or -woman) rule, confiscations, and executions for being a member of the wrong…
Giuliani Bolton MEK and the Blood Money of Global Terrorism
BY Ron Paul Institute, 2019/07/15
kurt nimmo, The Ron Paul Institute, July 14 2019:... Mujahedin-e Khalq has also conducted attacks against numerous Western targets, both in Europe, North America and elsewhere. In the early 1970s, MEK members killed several US soldiers and civilians working on defense projects in Tehran. Such victims included US Army Lt. Col. Lewis L. Hawkins who was assassinated in June 1973,…
Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – July 12, 2019
Iran Interlink, July 15 2019:... In articles about Haft-e Tir – the anniversary of Kolahi exploding the Hezb-e Jomhouri headquarters – this year, significantly, several well respected writers have raised the point 'why is it that the issue of Kolahi's murder which everyone knows was planned by the MEK is being swept under the carpet, with European security services pretending…
MEK Troll Factory in Albania . aka Mujahedin Khalq MKO…
Press TV, July 13 2019:... The MKO is listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community. Its members fled Iran in 1986 for Iraq, where it enjoyed backing of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Removing a decade-long ban on the MKO, the United States and its allies, however, have sought to use the group as a tool…
MEK Rajavi Applauded downing of the Iranian airliner ; FBI…
BY Lobelog, 2019/07/13
Paul Gottinger, Lobe Log, July 13 2019:... The San Diego branch of the Iranian opposition group, Mujahedin-E-Khalq (MEK), which was formerly listed by the U.S. State Department as a terror organization, is quoted in the document as "applauding" the U.S. Navy's downing of the Iranian airliner. The section of the documents on the MEK is particularly interesting because the group…
MEK Influence USA Policy for Regime Change in Iran
Reid Champlin, Open Secrets, July 11 2019:...The council was founded in the early 1980s as the political front of the MEK, which itself was started by self-described Marxist Iranian students in 1965. Initially fighting with other opposition groups to take down the Shah in the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the group soon came into conflict with the new Ayatollah Khomeini's government,…
Ilan Berman Whitewashing MEK Terrorists
Daniel Larison, July 10 2019:... Ilan-Berman does not address much of the relevant criticism of the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) in this article, and he takes the superficial "democratic" rhetoric and agenda of a totalitarian cult at face value. The article is titled "Making Sense of The MeK," but a previously uninformed reader would come away from reading this with a…