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Ebrahim Khodabandeh, April 08 2021:… Removing 300 fake MEK accounts, after so many years, constitutes only one percent of the actual amount of this type of account operating from Albania. Last year, on April 22, 2020, The Intercept reported on a fake identity created by the MEK in Albania called “Heshmat Alavi” whose misinformation was quoted by Donald Trump as well as Mike Pompeo against Iran. 300 Fake MEK-Facebook Accounts Tip of the Iceberg
300 Fake MEK-Facebook Accounts Tip of the Iceberg
Removing 300 fake MEK accounts after so long is only one percent of the actual amount of this type of account
Ebrahim Khodabandeh
Associated Press (AP News) reported on April 7, 2021 that Facebook has removed about 300 Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) linked fake accounts run from Albania.
The news was widely reported in the international media.
Link to the detailed report by Facebook (PDF)
Ebrahim Khodabandeh . CEO Nejat Society
However, it should be noted that according to information obtained from a large number of former members of the Rajavi cult in Albania, which has been reflected in international media in the past couple of years, the MEK cyber unit or troll farm in this country contains 1,500 people, each with about 20 fake accounts in cyberspace which target the peace and security of Iranian society.
The followers of this destructive mind control cult, who are in fact modern slaves, are engaged in producing and spreading rumours and posting misinformation from various accounts against the national interests of the Iranian people all day long, like robots, based on a specific schedule.
Removing 300 fake MEK accounts, after so many years, constitutes only one percent of the actual amount of this type of account operating from Albania.
Last year, on April 22, 2020, The Intercept reported on a fake identity created by the MEK in Albania called “Heshmat Alavi” whose misinformation was quoted by Donald Trump as well as Mike Pompeo against Iran.
https://theintercept.com/2020/04/22/trump-heshmat-alavi-twitter-mek/
The Intercept also reported on June 9, 2019 that Alavi is a composite identity run by a team of MEK members based mainly at the group’s compound in Albania, according to defectors who were involved with managing the account and other sources. The article says:
“Alavi’s articles also mixed criticisms of Iran and U.S. policy with overt advocacy for the MEK. His pieces in the Daily Caller, The Hill, and other outlets — though less numerous than his contributions to Forbes — employed a similar mix of advocacy against the Iranian regime and praise for the MEK. Though the MEK is known to be widely loathed among Iranians, Alavi described the group as the “main Iranian opposition group” in a 2017 Daily Caller article.”
https://theintercept.com/2019/06/09/heshmat-alavi-fake-iran-mek/
Aljazeera News, wrote on June 15, 2019 in an article titled ‘US-Iran debates: Fake writers and state-funded trolling’ that:
“As the Trump administration continues with its hawkish talk on Iran, we need to look at how that story is being crafted and by whom: Heshmat Alavi was once cited by the White House as a credible commentator on Iran. Shame he doesn’t exist. It turns out he is a fictional persona reportedly created by the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), a shadowy group opposed to the Iranian government and supported by Washington.”
In this regards The American Conservative in a lengthy article titled ‘Another Opinion Columnist Pushing War with Iran Who Doesn’t Actually Exist’ wrote about this matter on Sep 2, 2020, emphasizing that:
“The list of MEK disinformation tactics also includes fake online since-deleted sites such as PersiaNow and ArabEye and questionable sites such as Iran Focus whose domain was formerly registered under the name of an NCRI spokesperson and is now anonymously held.”
“MEK’s recent influence campaign on Facebook spearheaded by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) was recently reported on last year by Lachlan Markey at the Daily Beast. Markey explained how NCRI lobbyist Soheila Aligholi Mayelzadeh has helped place paid ads on Facebook reaching between 500,000 to 1.4 million users as part of the campaign to sway US public opinion in favor of MEK and intervention in Iran.”
“The list of outright fakes recently in the realm of foreign policy analysis is significant: there is the apparent Emirati fabrication Raphael Badani to MEK sock puppet Alavi, first revealed by The Intercept, to deep fake non-existent anti-Palestinian activist Oliver Taylor, whose work was placed at highly-respected publications in the United States and Israel.”
Another Opinion Columnist Pushing War With Iran Who Doesn’t Actually Exist
The American Conservative also wrote on January 6, 202I in an article titled ‘Rejecting Regime Change for Good’ that:
“The U.S. government doesn’t understand the countries in question, it relies on bad information that is frequently offered to them by self-serving exiles and activists, and it doesn’t know how to do state-and-institution-building on such a large scale in any case. The U.S. has expended vast resources for decades on some of these policies with remarkably little to show for it, so it is laughable to think that the problem is insufficient resources. There are things that are simply beyond our government’s power. The answer is not to do regime change on the cheap, as the U.S. tried in Libya, but to reject regime change.”
The Independent wrote on June 11, 2019 under the title ‘Heshmat Alavi Gate’ (Trump and MEK):
“The Heshmat Alavi persona had a strong presence on Twitter and harassed Iranian journalists, academics, and activists who are critical of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq organisation, a one-time armed guerilla group now holed up in Albania. There is no known link between the Iran Disinfo programme and the fake persona. At least one was cited by the Trump administration as proof against the effectiveness of the Obama-era nuclear deal. Some of the MEK articles were also picked up by US government funded Voice of America’s Persian-language service.”
300 Fake MEK-Facebook Accounts Tip of the Iceberg
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EU Commissioner Ylva Johansson Asked To Look Into The MEK Problem In Albania
Lucrative MEK Fake Accounts Interfering In American Politics
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Also read:
https://iran-interlink.org/wordpress/trump-campaign-uses-mujahedin-e-khalq-troll-farm-in-albania/
Trump Campaign Uses Mujahedin-e-Khalq ( MEK ) Troll Farm In Albania
Massoud Khodabandeh, Iran Interlink, October 28 2020:… leading up to the U.S. Presidential election, Iranian-American journalists and other commentators and campaigners are suffering an onslaught of online attacks. Some of these relentless Tweets include death threats. Targeting critics of Trump and his legacy like Jamal Abdi (Head of National Iranian American Council), Negar Mortazavi (prominent Journalist for The Independent and other outlets) and Dr Asal Rad (Historian). The attacks emanate from the MEK’s troll farm in Albania. The MEK’s Heshmat Alavi account is still being used in spite of it being exposed as a fake account last year by Murteza Hussain in The Intercept. Trump Campaign Uses Mujahedin-e-Khalq ( MEK ) Troll Farm In Albania .
Trump clearly has no intention of defeating terrorism.
Trump Campaign Uses Mujahedin-e-Khalq ( MEK ) Troll Farm In Albania
Trump Campaign Uses Mujahedin-e-Khalq Troll Farm In Albania
In the final days leading up to the U.S. Presidential election, Iranian-American journalists and other commentators and campaigners are suffering an onslaught of online attacks. Some of these relentless Tweets include death threats. Targeting critics of Trump and his legacy like Jamal Abdi (Head of National Iranian American Council), Negar Mortazavi (prominent Journalist for The Independent and other outlets) and Dr Asal Rad (Historian).
Iranian dissident Mehdi Amin is identified as victim of homicide in Toronto. He was found dead inside his home Wednesday afternoon. @CBCNews pic.twitter.com/lDJOrVX2xe
— Negar Mortazavi (@NegarMortazavi) October 23, 2020
On one occasion even Richard Grenell, who has recently been politely expelled from Germany (they really couldn’t stand his regular racist comments and unacceptable interference in European affairs), now the guy who runs the Trump2020 campaign, has retweeted one of these tweets.
Here @RichardGrenell retweets an account previously exposed as a false persona created by the MEK cult falsely accusing a group of Iranian Americans of being Iranian lobbyists. https://t.co/otjbKxdgQQ pic.twitter.com/APm3MqHIef
— Dan Friedman (@dfriedman33) October 27, 2020
The attacks emanate from the MEK’s troll farm in Albania. The MEK’s Heshmat Alavi account is still being used in spite of it being exposed as a fake account last year by Murteza Hussain in The Intercept.
A Trump campaign official is smearing Iranian Americans w/racist dual loyalty charges & amplifying a fake Twitter persona run from an Albanian troll farm by the MEK terrorist group. Oh & this guy was allowed to run US intelligence for a month. 7 DAYS UNTIL WE END THIS NIGHTMARE. pic.twitter.com/HbiOb9cYHi
— Jamal Abdi (@jabdi) October 27, 2020
Revealingly, the Trump campaign has joined in with these attacks, amplifying the threats, harassment and lies through Re-Tweets and Shares on social media.
Donald Trump MEK Terrorists And The Troll Factory In Albania
It is common knowledge that Saudi Arabia’s Sheikh Mohammad Bin Salman (MBS) is seriously worried about the departure of Trump, opening the prospect of investigations into the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, ordered by him and carried out in the Saudi Embassy in Turkey. The Mojahedin-e-Khalq for their part are both worried about the future of their new benefactor (Saudi’s Mokhaberat after the fall of Saddam), and worried about their own future as pressure on Albania to give them free rein there may be lifted and the members would be subjected to the plan of deradicalization and integration as was planned by the Obama administration. This will place Maryam Rajavi in a particularly difficult position since she was deported from France and has been confined in Albania without the possibility of being granted a visa from any western countries.
(End)
Trump Campaign Uses Mujahedin-e-Khalq Troll Farm In Albania
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Also read:
Ebrahim Khodabandeh, Nejat Society, February 20 2021:… Ebrahim Khodabandeh, CEO of Nejat Society, Iran, wrote a letter to the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, calling on her to raise with the Albanian authorities the issue of abuse of the most basic human rights of members and former members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK, MKO) in Albania. EU… 300 Fake MEK-Facebook Accounts Tip of the Iceberg
Ebrahim Khodabandeh, Nejat Society, December 13 2020:… On behalf of the suffering families of members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK, MKO, NCR, NLA), I would like to draw your attention to an emerging humanitarian catastrophe due to the spread of Covid-19 in the MEK’s closed and isolated Camp Ashraf 3 in Manez, Albania. The alarming news coming from inside… 300 Fake MEK-Facebook Accounts Tip of the Iceberg
Ebrahim Khodabandeh, Nejat Society, December 02 2020:… “The Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) is the body of independent experts which monitors implementation of the Convention by the State Parties.” The Republic of Albania is a State Party and has signed the Convention. So, the Convention does apply to Albania. It has been noted that all State Parties are obliged to… 300 Fake MEK-Facebook Accounts Tip of the Iceberg
Ebrahim Khodabandeh, Nejat Society, November 05 2020:… On behalf of the suffering families of the members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK, MKO), whose loved ones joined this organization, and now have no information about their status, I would like to inform you that more than six months ago these families sent hundreds of complaints, with detailed documents and explanations.… 300 Fake MEK-Facebook Accounts Tip of the Iceberg
Nejat Society, September 06 2020:… On behalf of the suffering families of members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK, MKO, Rajavi Cult), based in the organization’s camp in Albania, I would like to inform you that this organization, due to its cultic behavior, prevents its members from communicating with the outside world, particularly with family and friends. Recently, a petition… 300 Fake MEK-Facebook Accounts Tip of the Iceberg
Ebrahim Khodabandeh, Iran Interlink, August 14 2020:… There was news from some people in the Albanian security apparatus that there was a conspiracy against Bidi. (Bidi is a former member of the MEK – aka Rajavi cult – which operates an extraterritorial, extrajudicial base inside Albania.) Since Ehsan Bidi had not complied with the demands of the security forces during… 300 Fake MEK-Facebook Accounts Tip of the Iceberg
Nejat Society, July 19 2020:… Khodabandeh then referred to the Rajavi cult’s response, saying that the Rajavi response to the request, like all destructive cults, was base obscenity, slander and insult. He cited the example of a mother who has not heard the voice of her son – who had one day joined the MEK for some reason – for… 300 Fake MEK-Facebook Accounts Tip of the Iceberg
Iran Interlink, May 15 2020:… Eighty percent of this week’s MEK Farsi output has been dedicated to attacking the families and their petition addressed to Albanian PM Edi Rama asking for help to contact their loved ones in the MEK camp. The other twenty percent has been the usual; repeating what the Saudis and Americans say with gross exaggeration. Many… 300 Fake MEK-Facebook Accounts Tip of the Iceberg
Nejat Society, Tehran, May 07 2020:… Endri Fuga is the Albanian Prime Minister’s Director of Communications and the person who runs the current government’s media and public affairs strategy. Ebrahim Khodabandeh the CEO of the Nejat Society wrote him a report on the petition “Urging Albanian government to allow the families to contact their loved ones in the MEK camp”,… 300 Fake MEK-Facebook Accounts Tip of the Iceberg
Nejat Society, Tehran, May 02 2020:… The families’ petition addressed to the Albanian government has been shared over 1000 times. The message of the families to the Albanian Prime Minister: Our children are captives in the hands of terrorists in your country. Some Tehran families of the members trapped inside Rajavi’s terrorist cult in Albania, in a message addressed to… 300 Fake MEK-Facebook Accounts Tip of the Iceberg
Ebrahim Khodabandeh, Nejat Society, April 30 2020:… A few days after the campaign was launched, the MEK fearfully reacted on April 23, 2020 in its website ‘Iran Probe’ with a lengthy article titled: “Iranian regime is campaigning for Albanian entry visas for its terrorists”. The article is a stream of fabricated lies trying to persuade the Albanians not to issue… 300 Fake MEK-Facebook Accounts Tip of the Iceberg
Nejat Society, Tehran, April 27 2020:… Please answer why the Albanian authorities, in cooperation with the Rajavi cult, are preventing families from communicating with their loved ones? Why has the Albanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs ordered all its embassies not to issue visas to Iranians so that families would not be able to travel to your country? The level of… 300 Fake MEK-Facebook Accounts Tip of the Iceberg
