Follow
Iran Interlink, October 19 2019:… Another example of this mercenary approach is that MEK appear to believe some executions are good executions while some executios are bad. nOne article in particular lists all the executions committed by the MEK themselves; from killing Americans in Iran, the executions of Kurds in Iraq, right up to recent executions in Albania like Malik Sharai. It notes that the MEK was silent about all the executions by Saddam. And how in all the past four decades they have not dared to mention the barbaric executions in Saudi Arabia. As if those are OK. Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – October 18, 2019
Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – October 18, 2019
++ There have been several pieces in Farsi about the Giuliani affair and how after already losing John Bolton the MEK are now in a panic over losing Giuliani too.
++ An article answers Maryam Rajavi’s statement declaring that she is against the Turkish actions in Syria and is supporting the Kurds. This article points out that Rajavi killed more Kurds than anyone. That’s the reason the Kurdish council boycotted the UANI session in New York when you were invited. Other commentary points out that Rajavi enters into everything like a mosquito, except the real issues she needs to answer for and which she hasn’t answered for three decades – the families, supporting Saddam, internal abuses, etc. Every now and then the MEK make it clear they are proud mercenaries for any issue, but then they also claim all they are about is rescuing Iran. This is why even while talking about the Turkish actions in Syria, the MEK’s announcement is announcement is 80% swearing against Iran as though Iran is responsible for this.
Suzanne Maloney dropped out of UANI event due to presence of MEK
++ Another example of this mercenary approach is that MEK appear to believe some executions are good executions while some executions are bad. One article in particular lists all the executions committed by the MEK themselves; from killing Americans in Iran, the executions of Kurds in Iraq, right up to recent executions in Albania like Malik Sharai. It notes that the MEK was silent about all the executions by Saddam. And how in all the past four decades they have not dared to mention the barbaric executions in Saudi Arabia. As if those are OK.
In English:
++ City News, Albania reported that journalist Gjergji Thanasi has sued MEK enforcer Behzad Saffari Dehkord for defamation. Saffari has several times labelled Thanasi ‘an agent of the Iranian regime’ – the standard epithet applied to all of MEK’s critics. But perhaps when your terrorist cult has been foisted on a small, struggling country and is intolerable to every citizen except those paid by the MEK or the US, such behaviour needs to be brought to book. The MEK sent one of Albania’s highest paid lawyers to the first hearing, but Saffari will be obliged to attend the next hearing in person.
++ Mazda Parsi, Nejat Bloggers, refers to the book ‘Gullible Superpower: U.S. Support For Bogus Foreign Democratic Movements’ by Ted Carpenter of the Cato Institute and reviews the chapter on the MEK. Parsi says that advocacy for the MEK is not limited to the U.S. and Israel but includes Saudi Arabia and now Albania. According to Reza Alghurabi of the Herald Tribune, Albania’s support was bought by the U.S. which paid $25m to the government and $20m to the UNHCR. The MEK has also generously paid “hefty sums of money for a ten-minute speech on behalf of the group”. Such payments have corrupted Albania’s approach to Iran. “In exchange the Albanian authorities serve them with hostile acts towards Iran”, says Parsi. However, no matter how much the MEK’s advocates try to pretend that the Iranian people do not loathe the MEK, this is an established fact.
++ A piece in the Tehran Times reviews the work of Iranian filmmaker Mohammad-Hossein Mahdavian. Mahdavian has made two films about the MEK’s history in Iran, Trace of Blood and The Midday Event. “The stories of “The Midday Event” and “Trace of Blood” were set in the 1980s when Mahdavian and Ebrahim Amini, with whom he co-wrote the screenplays for the films, were only children. However, in an interview with Mahdavian, veteran critic Hushang Golmakani, who works for the Persian monthly Film, called the details of the sets and dialogues of “Trace of Blood” perfect. ‘The film has the potential to be biased, but it has maintained its balance. The film has very good dialogues and perfect ending’, Golmakani noted. It appears that a perfect filmmaker who is genuinely skilled in transforming real political narratives into films has emerged.”
++ MEK advocate Rudi Giuliani was in the spotlight this week with several articles mentioning the MEK as one of many foreign groups who have paid him handsomely for his advocacy. In relation to the MEK, Politico reported that “Giuliani has claimed he’s only working ‘as a private citizen—thank God I can still do that’.” NBC News ran a lengthy detailed examination of Giuliani and other high-profile figures who have been happy to shill for the MEK over many years without registering as lobbyists for a foreign group. This may or may not be the beginning of Giuliani’s downfall. But it certainly is another nail in the coffin of the MEK.
Nobody Can Be “Comfortable” With Regime Change Involving MEK
++ Muhammad Sahimi in Lobelog describes UANI sponsored gatherings of so-called Iranian opposition groups as the U.S. far right’s efforts “ to exploit Iran’s diverse ethnic population in order to stir trouble in the country and advance its anti-Iran agenda”. Sahimi details the background of these groups and concludes: “The attempt by UANI, a group that reportedly receives a lot of its funding from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, to provoke ethnic strife in Iran may well lead to more bloodshed, but it will likely ultimately fail. Iranians of diverse backgrounds have lived together side-by-side and have preserved their nation for thousands of years. Iran’s true opposition inside the country—the reformists, religious-nationalists, secular leftists, labor groups, human rights activists, and others—and its supporters in the diaspora reject discrimination against minorities, ethnic tensions, economic sanctions, military threats, and foreign intervention. In the democratic Iran that the true opposition will eventually achieve, all Iranians, regardless of their ethnicity, religion, or gender, will be equal.”
Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – October 18, 2019
***
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
Also read:
Suzanne Maloney, Tweeter, September 27 2019:… I speak to all kinds of audiences all the time & I don’t impose an ideological litmus test. It’s incredibly worthwhile to hear opposing points of view & engage in dialogue; I’ve learned a lot. This doesn’t happen enough in policy & academic work on Iran, unfortunately. But I won’t engage w/the MEK &… Iran Interlink Weekly Digest
Press TV, September 26 2019:… Speaking at the United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) 2019 summit in New York on Wednesday, Pompeo called on world countries to stand with the US alongside Israel, announcing new sanctions against Iran and blaming Tehran for backing “terrorist groups”. The summit, which was being held on the sidelines of the 74th session of the United… Iran Interlink Weekly Digest
Zhelwan Z. Wali, Rudaw, September 26 2019:… ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iran’s Kurdish parties say they will not take part in a conference allegedly organized by the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) on the fringes of the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday because the Kurdish question in Iran is not a key part of the agenda. The… Iran Interlink Weekly Digest
Julian Pecquet, Al Monitor, September 25 2019:… But attendance was dominated by the Mujaheddin-e-Khalq (MEK) and its allies. Iran considers the MEK a terrorist group, as the United States did until 2012.. Openly embracing the MEK could also put the Trump administration in an uncomfortable spot. The administration does not officially support regime change, but recently stopped ruling out the MEK as… Iran Interlink Weekly Digest
Iran Front Page IFP, September 25 2019:… On Wednesday, Mike Pompeo is scheduled to speak at an event hosted by Iran hawk and former diplomat Mark Wallace, who has drawn criticism for including a fringe Iranian terrorist group, Mujahideen-e Khalq, or MKO, in his programming surrounding the UN General Assembly in New York. Until 2012, the MKO was listed as… Iran Interlink Weekly Digest
Mitch Prothero, Business Insider, September 24 2019:… US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo plans to attend an event at the UN General Assembly tomorrow that is linked to a notorious Iranian cult which has murdered at least six American civilians and spent over 20 years protected by Saddam Hussein’s regime. The Mujahedin-e-Khalq (or People’s Mujahedin of Iran) “is an organisation… Iran Interlink Weekly Digest
John Hudson, Washington Post, September 24 2019:… Pompeo is scheduled to speak at an event hosted by Iran hawk and former diplomat Mark Wallace, who has drawn criticism for including a fringe Iranian diaspora group, Mujahideen-e Khalq, or MEK, in his programming surrounding the U.N. gathering. Until 2012, the MEK was listed as a foreign terrorist organization by the United… Iran Interlink Weekly Digest
Iran Interlink, September 20 2019:… Commentators’ reactions to the MEK’s anniversary celebration of the founders of the MEK say ‘how ridiculous it is to attach yourselves to the founders as they have nothing to do with what you are now. You are now mercenary force for Israel, Saudi and the US. The reason you can’t move beyond your own past… Iran Interlink Weekly Digest
Nebojsa Malic, Russia Today, September 20 2019:… The examples are legion. Razavi herself mentions (though not by name) “Heshmat Alavi,” a supposed expert on Iran who recently turned out to be a construct – an online persona operated by the Iranian exile group Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK). This is an outfit that seeks regime change in Tehran, and has been endorsed… Iran Interlink Weekly Digest
Tehran Times, September 19 2019:… Bolton’s thirst for war against Iran was so high that he favored Mojahdin Khalq Organization (MKO/MEK) – a cult group that some analysts have likened to Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge – as a replacement for the Islamic Republic system. Trump’s administration is fraught with repeated mistakes. Trump knew beforehand that Bolton had pushed for the Iraq… Iran Interlink Weekly Digest
Alice Taylor, The Balkanista, September 17 2019:… It was then, as I looked around I noticed that there were no other journalists present as I could not see any TV crews, no other people with press cards, no journalists I recognised, and I realised I hadn’t seen any media vans or cars in the car park. There was only the… Iran Interlink Weekly Digest
Emad Abshenass, United World, September 17 2019:…Bolton participated in many Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization meetings and received more than $180,000 for a speech where he promised the members of this group (which is considered a terrorist organization in Iran and many other countries around the world) they would celebrate Nowruz (the Iranian New Year) together in Tehran. While the Iranians don’t… Iran Interlink Weekly Digest
Nejat Society, September 15 2019:… For the past decades, the Middle East has been a fertile ground for proxy wars. However, Iran has almost always been a secure land in the heart of this chaotic region despite the fact that several dissident and separatist groups oppose the Iranian government. The Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi) is… Iran Interlink Weekly Digest
