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Gjergji Thanasi and Olsi Jazexhi, Tirana, Albania, August 30 2020:… We urge your ministries to implement the Albanian Penal Code articles on Foreign Fighters, to do its best to deradicalize these Iranian Mujahedin and stop MEK paramilitary organization from using Albania as a base for their attacks against journalism and media… While we are not afraid from MEK’s threats, lies and character assassination, we would like to urge your ministries to grant us full protection against these foreign fighters and ex-terrorist mujahedin. These people have blood on their hands and the possibility exist that we might be physically attacked or even murdered by these violent foreign fighters and ex terrorists. In 2018 they attacked in Tirana the Canadian/Iranian family of Mostafa Mohamady who was even hospitalized after their violent attack. Gjergji Thanasi Olsi Jazexhi Ask For Protection Against Mujahedin Terrorists In Albania
Olsi Jazexhi and Ghergji Thanasi . Discuss The Threat Of MEK To Albanians
Gjergji Thanasi Olsi Jazexhi Ask For Protection Against Mujahedin Terrorists In Albania
A public reply to the Mujahedin’s terrorist threats against our journalist work and ourselves in Albania
Sander Lleshaj Minister of Internal Affairs
Etilda Gjonaj Minister of Justice
CC:
Council of Europe
Human Rights Watch
Reporters Without Borders
A public reply to the Mujahedin’s terrorist threats against our journalist work and ourselves in Albania
Ministers Lleshaj and Gjonaj,
On 23 June, 2020 a number of ex-terrorists Mujahedin who live in Albania as refugees and describe themselves as members of the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK) sent you a public letter where they attack Olsi Jazexhi and Gjergji Thanasi, two Albanian journalists and scholars.
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These foreign fighters who were granted asylum in Albania, are members of a much larger group (MEK) which has a long history of violence and terrorism. Your government has allowed these ex-terrorist and foreign fighters to build a large paramilitary base in our country where thousands of their soldiers and commanders are stationed. By infringing many international and national laws and taking into consideration that MEK was part of US State Department and European Union list of terrorist organizations up to 2012, your government is hosting and allowing them to violate many Albanian laws and intimidate their critics and journalists like us who investigate their wrongdoings. As you might be aware MEK has publicly attacked many well known Western news outlets, like the BBC, Channel 4, Al Jazeera, New York Times and all the Albanian media who revealed to the public their crimes. We have become a target of MEK attacks, too.
In their open letter that they sent to you, they attacked us by claiming:
“Olsi Jazexhi and Gjergji Thanasi publish the content of the Iranian regime’s websites and cover associations on Gazeta Impakt or on their own Facebook pages of which only a limited number of members of the Revolutionary Guards and the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence are their readers. The Iranian regime then publishes the same material once again on its media as if the Albanian people support the demands of the Iranian notorious Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS). We have been made aware that the regime then distributes the same reports in prisons to justify further pressure on prisoners and our families”
They have called on your ministries:
“to investigate the illicit actions of Olsi Jazexhi and Gjergji Thanasi in favour of religious persecution in Iran and their contribution in the suppression of our families and the advancement of terrorism against Iranian refugees in Albania.”
Their open letter was followed by another attack that the official page of MEK has launched against us on August 10, 2020. In an anonymous article entitled: “How Do Mullahs Operate in Albania after the Expulsion of Two of Their Diplomat-Terrorists?”
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MEK has accused us of being local agents of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security. They write:
“Massoud Khodabandeh and his wife Anne Singleton, the notorious London-based MOIS agents, are two who are in daily contact with several MOIS local agents in Albania, including Gjergji Thanasi and Olsi Jazexhi. Thanasi and Jazexhi are in direct contact with MEK defectors recruited by the MOIS, including Hassan Heyrani. The local operatives hang out at a café in the Fresco area of Tirana, where they coordinate their espionage activities. Heyrani, who runs the Café, also pays the rent and other costs involved.”
While it is true that we as investigative journalists and scholars communicate with several Iranians in Albania and abroad, as well as foreign journalists who have their concerns about MEK’s violent and illegal activities, we want to inform your ministries that we are not agents of any foreign country or organization. We have no connections with MOIS or any Iranian state institution. Our journalistic work is not to support any country or foreign entity or any religious repression as these ex-terrorists try to character assassinate us. In our journalistic work we are contacted by many Iranian families and activists who want to find out about the human rights abuse and radicalisation that MEK does against its members who have relatives in Iran and around the world.We do our journalistic duty to serve as a bridge between the victims of MEK’s inhumane treatment of their members and their families back home. With our journalistic work we fulfil our duty to expose and investigate MEK’s lies, human rights abuses, radicalization, espionage and promotion of hatred and war against foreign countries.
While we are not afraid from MEK’s threats, lies and character assassination, we would like to urge your ministries to grant us full protection against these foreign fighters and ex-terrorist mujahedin. These people have blood on their hands and the possibility exist that we might be physically attacked or even murdered by these violent foreign fighters and ex terrorists. In 2018 they attacked in Tirana the Canadian/Iranian family of Mostafa Mohamady who was even hospitalized after their violent attack.
We have noticed in the past weeks that some departments and part of the personnel of your ministries have been at service of MEK. They are indirectly helping MEK in its campaign of persecution of the defectors of the organization and we personally are noticing that your police are also harassing us and our families in the work that we do.
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We kindly demand that your ministries investigate the illegal activities and threats that MEK does against journalism in Albania and us in person.We want your ministries to protect us from the threats, intimidation, lies and attacks that MEK carries out against media and journalists in our country.
We urge your ministries to implement the Albanian Penal Code articles on Foreign Fighters, to do its best to deradicalize these Iranian Mujahedin and stop MEK paramilitary organization from using Albania as a base for their attacks against journalism and media.
Sincerely yours
Gjergji Thanasi
Olsi Jazexhi
Gjergji Thanasi Olsi Jazexhi Ask For Protection Against Mujahedin Terrorists In Albania
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https://iran-interlink.org/wordpress/mek-assassinated-americans/
MEK Assassinated Americans
Terror Spring, September 05 2019:… As mentioned before, on the 7 o’clock of 1976/08/28, 6 members of the Mojahedin-e-Khalq group (Islamic Marxist) blocked the way with a Volkswagen of the three American citizens residing in Tehran with the name of ((Robert Krongard, William Cotrell and Donald Smith)) that cooperating with Iran Imperial Air Force while transferring to their work place and killed three of them with machinegun and pistol and left their car and ran from the crime scene. Investigation done regarding the terror of three mentioned advisors shows that the executive members of this terror had enough intelligence of their status and jobs . MEK Assassinated Americans
MEK Assassinated Americans
Assassination of Three American Advisers
Identifying the Experts of Secret Mission
In the midst of the attacks that SAVAK brought to Marxist armed groups in the spring and summer of 1976, including the active elements of the MKO (MEK), they got killed or arrested, the MKO’s leadership decided to take a dramatic and effective military action.
The analysis of the leaders of the organization was based on the fact that after the deadly attacks to the MKO (MEK), and the Fadaian, they had to – in the first place – express their effective existence, and, secondly, – put the Pahlavi regime in a complex array of armed movements .
Along with this matter, at last, the assassination of three American advisers in Iran was designed and carried out by Mojahedin. These advisers were experts in the field of electronic equipment that led the installation and operation of complex eavesdropping systems in the form of a series of designs in ((Kabkan)), that is located on the border between Iran and the Soviet Union. According to the available information, the basic information about these three spies was most likely transmitted to the Mojahedin by the Soviet government
The Process of Assassinations
During the identification operations to carry out assassinations, the exact route of the car movement got identified. According to information obtained from the operational units of the organization, they traversed Tehranpars (the intersection of Damavand Avenue, known as the Tehran-Pars three ways) every morning between 7:00 and 7:20 minutes, and near the intersection of Narmak thirty meters, passing from Khayyam avenue (one of the neighboring streets of Vosuq Square). Therefore, it was decided that the MKO’s operational layout be arranged in this area and at a specific point on Khayyam Street.
According to the plan, a Volkswagen truck was used for traffic jams and one more car to escape. Additionally, the weapons gathered in compare with the individuals presented on the operation. This terrorist operation is described by Abedini as follows:
“Operation Day”, [1976/08/28] all work was done in accordance with the schedule. The driver of the motorcycle and the person who was with him were marked with a positive signal. The team got ready. Attack layout was done. The car was turned by the driver who should make the traffic, a few moments later the car carrying the advisors appeared on the street, and the driver stopped the car. The driver of the advisers felt that something is going on and turned the steering wheel to his right, but because of the narrow street he couldn’t do anything and the way got closed.
Commander surrendered the driver and made him to put his head under the dashboard then the machine gunner shot the bullets toward Americans. The front man (Robert Krongard) committed to run away after being hit, he came out of the car and went toward the side walk but machine gunner followed him and while he fell into the gutter, finished him. Meanwhile the driver who should make traffic, should get out and support the machine gunners and should stand beside them while machine gunner can dead shot the two Americans behind, and again give the machinegun to the traffic driver and ran toward the scape car. This part of the operation, that was the main part, was done completely (except two parts) and car moved in the identified way. After a distance one of the members got out and removed the fake car number and again continued to move. After a while two members got out and the driver went to Khorasan square with scape car, while the bags of the advisors were also in the car. He put the scape car in one of the alleys of Khorasan square and transferred the equipment to another car, which had already been put there, and move the new car to the base, where the equipment had to be taken there. And in this way the operation ended.”
Members of the operation team of assassination of three advisors are:
- Hosein SiyahKolah (Kazem) the commander of the operation;
- Mehdi Fathi (Vahid) deputy commander and in fact executive commander of the scene of operation; (the first machine gunner)
- Mohsen Tarighat (Mahmoud) the second machine gunner
- Ghasem Abedini (Asgar)traffic driver and driver of scape car
- Shahram Mohammadian Bajgiran (Javad) motor driver and marker
- Gholamhosein Sahebekhtiari (shamsollah-Asghar) the motor cyclist and marker4
Captain Lewis Lee Hawkins
From the very next day, the details and descriptions of this assassination, with more details of the victims (with an emphasis on their military identity), were published in newspapers and it was announced that the American bodies were transferred to California.
Quality of operation
One of the differences between this assassination and other terror operations of the Mujahedin organization was that it was used handy machineguns for killing the targets this time. Other assassinations – generally – were carried with pistols, and the reason was clear: having large machineguns was in contradiction with the security and destroys the security of the team. But in this particular case, the use of Kalashnikov’s machinegun was on the agenda. Typically, machineguns were used to defend team houses, but Fadaian guerrillas used it in operations, but smaller and lighter ones, such as the ((Shi)) machine gun, which made by France.
SAVAK review results
One of SAVAK’s first reports about the assassination of three advisors of IBEX was as follows:
“As mentioned before, on the 7 o’clock of 1976/08/28, 6 members of the Mojahedin-e-Khalq group (Islamic Marxist) blocked the way with a Volkswagen of the three American citizens residing in Tehran with the name of ((Robert Krongard, William Cotrell and Donald Smith)) that cooperating with Iran Imperial Air Force while transferring to their work place and killed three of them with machinegun and pistol and left their car and ran from the crime scene. Investigation done regarding the terror of three mentioned advisors shows that the executive members of this terror had enough intelligence of their status and jobs. With the regard that the parts that military and nonmilitary American advisors were doing their services were always on special interest of members of intelligence services of Soviet Union and mentioned three advisors were working in a sector that has high sensitivity, this is concluded that the mentioned information and identification have done by members of the Soviet Union intelligence service.6”
Source: MKO (MEK) organization: Founding till the end (1965-2005), Second volume, In an effort by a team of researchers, the Institute of Political Studies and Research publication
End
MEK Assassinated Americans
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