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FaxWeb and Albanian Gazette, October 24 2019:… State Police Director Ardi Veliu announced at a press conference that a terrorist cell led by a resident of Iran had been prevented from carrying out attacks in Albania against the Mojahedin group sheltered in our country, the MEK, opposition in exile to the Iranian regime. But historian Ols Jazexhi says we are dealing with Fake News produced in the Mojahedin headquarters in Tirana, to which the Interior Minister Lleshaj Sander, the State Police and the anti-terror unit have fallen prey. Albanians React to MEK Fake News – State Police Fallen Prey
I can buy Albanian President for a thousand dollars; Maryam Rajavi
Albanians React to MEK Fake News – State Police Fallen Prey
1- “Terrorist cell in Tirana”: Thanasi: Veliu read a prepared statement – Jazexhi: MEK seeks to produce ‘fake news’
FaxWeb
(Translated by Iran Interlink)
23 October 2019
In a statement to the media, State Police Director Ardi Veliu revealed that a terrorist cell in Albania has been destroyed, aimed at carrying out attacks on MEK members in Albania. It said that the cell was headed by a resident of Iran and was intended to hit the refugee Mojahedin group in our country. Invited to Fax News, to talk about this police information are Gjergj Thanasi investigative journalist and Olsi Jazexhi historian.
Thanasi stated that Police Director Ardi Veliu simply read a statement, with some minor errors, but that it was not his creation.
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“It seems to me that the director read the statement with very few mistakes; he made some, but this is a success for him. He didn’t produce it. He read it and there are many inaccurate statements in it. One of these terrorists is an Austrian citizen – is he in prison, in custody, under coercion? This citizen of our allied country has not been detained in Austria. These people came to Albania. The statement refers to a ‘terrorist act’ on Norouz Day in 2018. That’s hilarious. At that time the state police arrested two Iranian nationals suspected of involvement in terrorist activities. Two Iranian ‘terrorists’?! They had come with regular visas, free of charge, after being invited in writing by one of the leaders of the religious Bektashi sect in Albania. Now, is Baba Mondi being linked with terrorists?! So, we have a lie about a ‘terrorist act’ on March 22, 2018. It’s a lie. If the two terrorists were arrested why were they allowed to leave Rinas. Terrorism is a big thing for Albania – they were detained, then the matter was dismissed! Terrorism is one of the criminal offenses pursued by SHISH. MEK is unreliable as a source of information. They should be punished. Woe betide anyone who uses MEK as a source”, said Thanasi.
Meanwhile, historian Olsi Jazexhi declared that the MEK organization deals in espionage, adding that MEK creates fake news.
Jazexhi: The MEK deals in espionage and attacks by creating fake news against the Iranian state. The MEK should be punished for this activity, but the law does not work here. The MEK was used to attack the American embassy. This police statement was unprofessional. Journalists were not allowed to ask questions. It’s just fake news to be picked up by the media.
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Posted by Iran Interlink on Friday, October 25, 2019
The MEK did not react. Now it will use Veliu’s news which means the heroic Albanian police have attacked the terrorists’ attack on us. The script was prepared for Ardi to read. It’s about giving a story to the international media. To help Europe and the US promote war in the Middle East and start fighting against Iran.
The MEK has produced a fake news story about the capture of two Iranians who had rigged up a car that was about to explode. This was fake news. But in the world outside Albania it was received as real news. They also interviewed Pandi Majkon.
Shkaterrimi i celules terroriste. Te ftuar: Olsi Jazexhi, historian dhe Gjergji Thanasi, gazetar
Posted by Fax Web on Wednesday, October 23, 2019
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2- Olsi Jazexhi: Unknown side of terrorists seeking to attack Albania
Albanian Gazette
(Translated by Iran Interlink)
24 October 2019
State Police Director Ardi Veliu announced at a press conference that a terrorist cell led by a resident of Iran had been prevented from carrying out attacks in Albania against the Mojahedin group sheltered in our country, the MEK, opposition in exile to the Iranian regime.
But historian Ols Jazexhi says we are dealing with Fake News produced in the Mojahedin headquarters in Tirana, to which the Interior Minister Lleshaj Sander, the State Police and the anti-terror unit have fallen prey.
According to Jazexhi, the police simply read the statement given by the Mojahedin, adding that one of the Austrian nationals accused of terrorism, Erwin Aram, had come to Tirana to rescue his mother from their camp but had failed.
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3- Official Communique of Director General of the Albanian Police
General State Police Director, Ardi Veli, together with the Director of the Anti-Terror Department Gladys Nano, in a statement to the media.
A terrorist network led by the Iranian regime has been discovered in Albania. The aim of the network was to carry out attacks on the Iranian opposition movement (MEK).
An active terrorist cell of the Iranian Quds Force’s External Operations Unit has been recently discovered by Albanian Security Services. The terrorist cell is also responsible, among other things, for its March 2018 plan to carry out a terrorist act during the celebrations of the Norouz Festival, attended by high-ranking members of the Iranian opposition organization Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), a plan that was prevented by increased State Police measures, thanks to accurate information.
The terrorist cell is run by a Quds Force operative, known as Peyman. Peyman is a permanent resident of Iran and remotely manages a number of operations in Albania and elsewhere in Central and Western Europe. Among other things, he initiated and implemented the recent attempted attack in March 2018. Peyman manages many operatives, some for intelligence gathering and others to carry out terrorist attacks.
One of these operatives is Alireza Naghashzadeh, an Iranian who is himself a former member of the MEK and who holds an Austrian passport. Naghashzadeh was sent by Peyman to gather information in Albania during several separate visits as part of plans for an attack that was eventually halted.
Another operative is Abdolkhalegh Malek Zadeh, an Iranian living in Turkey and running the operational cell. Malek Zadeh (also known through criminal connections under the nickname Ferhat) has continued to work over the past two years with Abdulselam Turgut, a well-known Turkish organized crime figure, to plan terrorist attacks at the behest of Peyman and the Quds Force. Turgut, known as a Turkish mafia boss and head of a powerful international drug trafficking network, has recently been jailed in both Azerbaijan and in Turkey on drug trafficking charges. Turgut also has long-standing links to organized crime in Albania. Turgut was released from a prison in Turkey at the end of 2018. In 2011, Turgut had also been jailed in Albania on charges of suspected trafficking of about 1 ton of heroin but escaped from the country using a false passport after the court changed the security measures from “Prison Arrest” to “House Arrest”.
Balkans-based criminal operatives who have been subordinates of Turgut or a related Turkish drug trafficker since 2018 have been sent to Albania for preparing advanced planning for attacks against MEK, as dictated by Malek Zadeh and the Quds Force. The Albanian authorities have identified these individuals, and information provided by whistleblowers from within criminal organizations has allowed the Albanian authorities to prevent the March 2018 plan and eventual planning for attacks by organized crime figures aimed at MEK on behalf of the Iranian regime.
Quds Force is the operational wing of the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) operating beyond Iran’s borders. The Quds force is led by Qasem Soleimani, which is responsible for, among other things, Iran’s activities in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. The terrorist cell belonged, as mentioned, to the Quds Force’s External Operations Unit, an operational unit considered clandestine and secret, which is responsible for planning and implementing terrorist activity outside of Iran. Within this unit, there is a subunit that deals exclusively with organizations opposed to the regime. The unit’s modus operandi involves the remote management of third-party proxies, usually criminals and members of the Mafia with different backgrounds, in order to cover Iran’s involvement in terrorism. Using this modus operandi, Iran’s MOIS has killed at least 4 of the regime’s opponents in the Netherlands, Germany and Turkey and staged unsuccessful attacks, such as the latest attack attempted against the MEK conference in Paris in June 2018.
We note that since 2014, in coordination with the United Nations and the United States, Albania has hosted a number of MEK members, an organization that sees itself as an opposition in exile and as a viable alternative to the Iranian regime and this is why the Iranian regime views it as a serious threat to its survival. MEK is a key target for Iranian security forces, which tend to attack members of the organization wherever they may live and operate outside Iran.
Albanian security institutions are constantly working to halt these attacks.
Generalities:
1. PEYMAN – No further data provided.
2. Abdolkhalegh MALEK ZADEH, born April 21, 1979. He is known as “Ferhat”.
3. Erwin ARAM, born July 13, 1974. He is known as “Alireza NAGHASHZADEH”.
4. Abdulselam TURGUT, born May 27, 1967.
End
Albanians React to MEK Fake News – State Police Fallen Prey
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Ex MEK Member warns Albanian Government
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Also read:
https://iran-interlink.org/wordpress/in-albania-shedding-light-on-bizarre-behaviour-of-mek-cult/
In Albania Shedding Light on Bizarre Behaviour of MEK Cult
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 they will get angry and say: ‘How do you want to create freedom for the Iranian people if you have an erection every day? In Albania Shedding Light on Bizarre Behaviour of MEK Cult .
The shadowy cult Trump advisors tout as an alternative to the Iranian government
In Albania Shedding Light on Bizarre Behaviour of MEK Cult
Trump allies’ visit throws light on secretive Iranian opposition group
MEK operates out of compound in rural Albania and has been described as having cult-like attributes
The gates to the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) compound, situated on a gently inclined hillside in rural Albania, are usually firmly closed, guarded by two sculpted lions atop stone pedestals and a large team of Albanian security guards. Unannounced visitors are not welcome at the fenced-off, secretive site, where more than 2,000 MEK members live.
The history of the MEK, or the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, is long and complicated. Critics and many of those who have left the group in recent years describe it as a shadowy outfit with little support inside Iran and many cult-like attributes, condemned to die out at the obscure base in Albania because of its enforced celibacy rules.
But for its backers, which include many politicians and, notably, members ofDonald Trump’s inner circle, the MEK are tireless fighters for a free and democratic Iran who could potentially become the country’s next government.
This was highlighted over the weekend when the group held a gathering of international backers attended by, among others, Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. Other visitors included the former Democratic senator Joe Lieberman and the British Conservative MP Matthew Offord.
Giuliani described the MEK as a “government in exile” and suggested it was also a government in waiting after potential regime change in Iran. “It gives us confidence that if we make those efforts to overthrow that horrible regime, sooner rather than later, we will not only save lives but will be able to entrust the transition of Iran to a very responsible group of people,” he said to cheers from the assembled audience.
Giuliani has been a regular visitor to MEK events for several years, as has the US national security adviser, John Bolton. While they have been predicting an MEK government in Tehran for years, the fact that these officials now have positions in the Trump administration, combined with the increasingly fraught geopolitical situation around Iran, makes their support for the MEK matter more than ever.
Originally a Marxist-Islamist group that played a leading role in the 1979Iranian revolution, the MEK ended up exiled and fighting against the Iranian regime from a base in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. In the process, the MEK lost a lot of support inside Iran.
The group was only removed from the US terror list in 2012 and the Obama administration later helped negotiate its relocation to Albania as the situation in post-Saddam Iraq became perilous. There, in the countryside, it has constructed a vast compound where men and women lead segregated existences.
Last month, the Guardian spoke with about a dozen men in Tirana who had fled the MEK compound over the past two years. With no passports or other documents, they remain in limbo, unable either to work or to leave the country. The picture they painted of life inside the compound was of a cult-like atmosphere in which mobile phones and contact with relatives were banned, all interactions between men and women were prohibited, and days were spent sitting at computers firing out tweets and other online messages in support of the MEK.
Each evening, the men had to gather in small groups with their commanders for “ideological training” as well as a confessional about any sexual thoughts they might have had that day.
“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 they will get angry and say: ‘How do you want to create freedom for the Iranian people if you have an erection every day?’”
An investigation by the Intercept recently found that an anti-regime Iranian activist, who had written extensive media columns about Iran, appeared, in fact, to be an invented persona created by MEK trolls.
When leading political figures came to visit, the rank-and-file MEK members were told to do everything to make sure their high-level guests felt appreciated. Heyrani remembered a visit by John McCain in 2017, who was greeted by a chanting crowd of MEK members. “We had to cheer and clap. One of the commanders told us: ‘You speak English. Please tell him he is the best of democracy,’” he said.
For the MEK leadership, the election of Trump in 2016 was a godsend. Those who have left the camp since recalled that in the run-up to the election the group often prayed for a Trump victory and the defeat of Hillary Clinton.
One person who left the compound in 2018 said: “Everything changed when Obama left and Trump came to power. The leaders came from France to talk to us. They said you must wait a few months and suffer the conditions here and then soon we’ll be in power.”
The MEK did not respond to several requests for comment sent to a Paris-based spokesman, nor to a request left with the security guards outside its compound in Albania.
In Albania Shedding Light on Bizarre Behaviour of MEK Cult
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Also read:
Massoud Khodabandeh, Lobe Log, June 18 2019:… This is the tip of the iceberg. MEK interference in the internal affairs of America goes well beyond online attacks on Iran. In 2016, the Organization of Iranian American Communities in the US—a front for the MEK—announced a “General Elections Mobilization Effort,” publicly urging its members to “fulfill their civic duty through active… Albanians React to MEK Fake News
Aljazeera News, June 17 2019:… 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),… Albanians React to MEK Fake News
Caitlin Johnstone, Consortum News, June 16 2019:… This would be the same John Bolton who has been paid exorbitant speaking fees by the pro-regime change MEK terror cult, promising the cult in a 2017 speech that they’d be celebrating regime change in Tehran together before 2019. This would also be the same John Bolton who once threatened to murder an… In Albania Shedding Light on Bizarre Behaviour of MEK Cult Albanians React to MEK Fake News
Helen Buyniski, Russia Today, June 14 2019:… Heshmat Alavi, a virulently anti-Iranian columnist promoted by the Trump administration and published in Forbes, the Hill, and several other outlets, was unmasked as a propaganda construct operated by the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), a controversial Iranian exile group often called a cult that has only recently lobbied its way off the US’ terror… In Albania Shedding Light on Bizarre Behaviour of MEK Cult Albanians React to MEK Fake News
The Young Turks, June 13 2019:… “Heshmat Alavi” is a front propaganda efforts of the People’s Jihadis (Mojahedin-e Khalq or MEK). The MEK has committed numerous acts of terrorism in Iran and then collaborated with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. It was listed as a terrorist organization the the US until a few years ago and it is mysterious why it… In Albania Shedding Light on Bizarre Behaviour of MEK Cult Albanians React to MEK Fake News
Negar Mortazavi and Borzou Daragahi , Independent, June 11 2019:…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… In Albania Shedding Light on Bizarre Behaviour of MEK Cult Albanians React to MEK Fake News
Jason Rezaian, Washinton Post, June 11 2019:… After the report, Twitter appears to have suspended the account. But the MEK, the organization that “Team Heshmat Alavi” represents, has a nasty history. It was on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations for years before being removed in 2012. These days, it has no discernible popular support in Iran and… In Albania Shedding Light on Bizarre Behaviour of MEK Cult Albanians React to MEK Fake News
Murtaza Hussain, The Intercept, June 10 2019:… 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… In Albania Shedding Light on Bizarre Behaviour of MEK Cult Albanians React to MEK Fake News
Tony Cartalucci, Global Research, June 09 2019:… MEK is described by Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow Ray Takeyh as a “cult-like organization” with “totalitarian tendencies.” While Takeyh fails to expand on what he meant by “cult-like” and “totalitarian,” an interview with US State Department-run Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty reported that a MEK Camp Ashraf escapee claimed the terrorist organization bans marriage, using radios, the Internet, and holds many members… In Albania Shedding Light on Bizarre Behaviour of MEK Cult Albanians React to MEK Fake News
Iran Interlink , June 07 2019:.. Several people have written that the French government has prevented MEK from holding its annual rally to celebrate armed struggle in Villepinte, Paris this year. Some have added that the authorities have denied the MEK permission even to stage a public demonstration. This has forced MEK to stage a demonstration in Brussels instead. MEK… In Albania Shedding Light on Bizarre Behaviour of MEK Cult Albanians React to MEK Fake News
Ali Breland, Mother Jones, June 06 2019:… Many of the accounts also frequently voice their support for the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), a militant opposition group that some have called a terrorist organization, and its leader Maryam Rajavi. The accounts also frequently criticize the National Iranian American Council (NIAC)—a non-profit representing Iranians in the U.S.—claiming it advocates in support… In Albania Shedding Light on Bizarre Behaviour of MEK Cult Albanians React to MEK Fake News
Press TV, June 06 2019:… The #B_Team’s boy who cries wolf is crying once again: this time Mossad is fabricating intelligence about Iran’s involvement in sabotage in Fujairah. I’ve warned of “accidents” and false flags—we know what happens when you believe their lies. We’ve been here before, haven’t we? Mossad MEK and Fujairah False Flag . Zarif: Mossad fabricating intel… In Albania Shedding Light on Bizarre Behaviour of MEK Cult Albanians React to MEK Fake News
