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Nejat Society, October 31 2020:… Once advocating the anti-American anti-imperialism stance of their early leaders and then designated as a terrorist organization by the US State Department, the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi) is now pretending to be a friend of the US government! The group’s U-Turn to serve the US has been its main policy during the past decades, particularly after the collapse of the group’s long time sponsor Saddam Hussein in 2003. Why the MEK endeavour Trump re-election
Former Terrorists Praised By Former US Officials
Why the MEK endeavour Trump re-election
Once advocating the anti-American anti-imperialism stance of their early leaders and then designated as a terrorist organization by the US State Department, the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi) is now pretending to be a friend of the US government! The group’s U-Turn to serve the US has been its main policy during the past decades, particularly after the collapse of the group’s long time sponsor Saddam Hussein in 2003.
However, not all parts of the US government are favourites of the MEK. As far as an administration is a hawkish one, with stricter policies against the government in Tehran, it is favourable for the MEK leaders. Thus, Trump and his warmonger team must be the MEK’s best friends in the US administration. Therefore, it is worth it for MEK to support Trump for the next term.
The love affair of the MEK with US warmongers is not limited to the paid speeches of politicians like John Bolton and Rudy Giuliani in the MEK-run events in France, Albania and the United States. Mr. President himself has supported the MEK’s campaign against the Iranian nation. Although, the MEK may not be known to most American politicians, the propaganda activities of the group sometimes has been very crucial in manipulating warmongers.
It was a huge disclosure in the mass media when Murtaza Hussain of the Intercept reported that Trump retweeted fake news made by an anti-Iran hardliner who does not exist. He revealed the MEK-made fake persona in tweeter under the name of Heshmat Alavi. “This is not and has never been a real person,” Hussain stated. [1]
The moves by Trump –even unintentionally— seems to be in favor of the MEK. In September, Al Monitor stated that the US President’s appointee to the Supreme Court, “Amy Coney Barrett was part of a legal team that represented the National Council of Resistance of Iran, which had previously been designated by the United States as a terrorist organization”. [2] Dr. Djene Bajalan, a historian of the Middle East talked to the American Michael Brook’s show about Amy Coney Barrett’s relationship with the MEK.
“Amy Barrett’s work has been to advocate on behalf of the Mujahedin Khalq, the MEK which is s a terrorist organization by any standards,” he said. Calling the MEK as “crazy people”, he suggests that these crazy people can run their agenda among the US republicans because they have money. “They pay people big box to give speech and things like that,” he said. [3]
An Unholy Alliance: The Use of Terrorism According to John Bolton
Therefore, it sounds expectable to find the MEK running campaigns making efforts to aid Trump win the elections. The MEK has actually its own usual techniques in misinformation campaigns in the media. The US Director of Intelligence John Ratcliffe announced on Politico, on October 21 that, “Iran is behind threatening pro-Trump emails to U.S. voters”. [4] Juan Cole who is specialized in Middle Eastern and South Asian history and a critic of the MEK’s cult-like violent record, suggests that Ratcliffe’s words are “brain dead thing” and that the spoofed emails can be part of the MEK’s PR mechanism.
He clarifies: “Now, could the spoofed emails have come from accounts in Iran? Sure. The People’s Jihadis (Mojahedin-e Khalq or MEK, MKO), sometimes listed as a terrorist group by the US State Department, wants to overthrow the Islamic Republic, is active inside Iran and could easily set the government up in this way. Or I’m sure that Saudi or other anti-Iran government hackers could route the emails through an Iranian server or spoof an Iranian internet service provider. But, really, guys, intelligence analysis isn’t just tracing an ISP. You have to know geopolitics to know if something is plausible.” [5]
What is significant in the MEK-Warmongers relationship is that all sides of the alliance do not care about Iranian people. The proof of that is the support of US hardliners for the MEK which is a hated entity among the Iranians.
By Mazda Parsi
References:
[1] Hussain, Murtaza, An Iranian Activist Wrote Dozens of Articles for Right-Wing Outlets. But Is He a Real Person?, The Intercept, June 9th, 2019.
[2] Al Monitor Staff, Trump’s Supreme Court Pick Represented Controversial Iranian Group, Al Monitor, September 30th, 2020.
[3] https://www.nejatngo.org/en/posts/11158
[4] Geller, Eric, Iran behind threatening pro-Trump emails to U.S. voters, feds say, Politico, October 21st, 2020.
[5] Cole, Juan, Trumpie Wingnut DNI Ratcliffe hilariously blames Iran for pro-Trump Email Spoofs, Informed Comment, October 22nd, 2020.
Trump Campaign Uses Mujahedin-e-Khalq ( MEK ) Troll Farm In Albania
Why the MEK endeavour Trump re-election
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People’s Mujahedin (MEK), Questionable Allies Of Washington In Iran
Also read:
https://iran-interlink.org/wordpress/donald-trump-mek-terrorists-and-the-troll-factory-in-albania/
Donald Trump MEK Terrorists And The Troll Factory In Albania
Murtaza Hussain, The Intercept, April 23 2020:… Trump’s amplification of the post was bad enough on its own: Alavi is a supporter of a militant Iranian cult called the Mojahedin-e-Khalq, known as the MEK, an organization that was designated for decades as a terrorist organization and is widely hated inside Iran. What makes it even worse, however, is that Heshmat Alavi does not exist. As The Intercept reported last June, 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. Donald Trump MEK Terrorists And The Troll Factory In Albania
Donald Trump MEK Terrorists And The Troll Factory In Albania
TRUMP RETWEETED PRAISE FROM AN ANTI-IRAN HARD-LINER WHO DOESN’T EXIST
ON WEDNESDAY MORNING, just a few hours after once again threatening to go to war with Iran, President Donald Trump shared a tweet from an account from someone by the name of Heshmat Alavi. Like many of the tweets the president circulates, Alavi was praising Trump, this time for his hard-line stance against the Islamic Republic.
Trump’s amplification of the post was bad enough on its own: Alavi is a supporter of a militant Iranian cult called the Mojahedin-e-Khalq, known as the MEK, an organization that was designated for decades as a terrorist organization and is widely hated inside Iran. What makes it even worse, however, is that Heshmat Alavi does not exist.
As The Intercept reported last June, 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.
“Heshmat Alavi is a persona run by a team of people from the political wing of the MEK,” a former MEK member named Hassan Heyrani, who helped manage the Alavi persona in Albania, told The Intercept in 2019. “They write whatever they are directed by their commanders and use this name to place articles in the press. This is not and has never been a real person.”
In a blog post published after The Intercept story, the Alavi account admitted for the first time that there was no real Heshmat Alavi, claiming instead to be using a pseudonym. “No, I will never reveal my real identity or photograph,” the account wrote. “No activist in his/her right mind would do so. That would place all of my family, friends and myself, both inside & outside of Iran, in complete danger.”
While the Alavi account has never declared itself a member of the MEK, the content produced under the name frequently toed a pro-MEK line. In the same post published after The Intercept story, however, the account explicitly stated its support of the group: “Why do I support the MEK? 1) They have an organization. 2) They have an agenda. 3) They are serious and dedicated.”
Under Alavi’s name, a steady stream of blog posts and tweets have been produced over the years, always advocating harsh U.S. policies toward Iran and occasionally sliding in messages of support for the MEK and its leadership. And it’s not just social media activity: Articles under Alavi’s name were published in an array of mostly right-leaning news outlets in the U.S. At least one of these articles, published under Alavi’s name in Forbes, was cited in the past by the Trump administration to the press to justify its aggressive Iran policy.
Following The Intercept’s 2019 expose, publications like Forbes, the Daily Caller, and The Diplomat that had published articles by Alavi either removed or updated them to reflect his nonexistence as a person.
WHILE NEWS OUTLETS with editorial standards showed a willingness to remove articles by people demonstrated to not exist, social media outlets like Twitter remain useful vectors for getting misinformation out to the public — as in Alavi’s case. Today, Alavi’s account still exists and is still producing superhuman amounts of content.
The account was briefly suspended following The Intercept’s report, but after a storm of pro-MEK advocates tweeting at Twitter’s support account and the company’s CEO, the account was reinstated a few days later. Twitter does not comment on its decisions regarding individual users, but a source familiar with the organization told the Saudi-government owned al-Arabiya news that, after temporarily being banned, the Alavi account was reactivated after being deemed a “credible use of pseudonymity.”
Social media companies have been under increasing criticism for their roles in helping amplify disinformation, including from sources connected to foreign governments and political movements. During the 2016 presidential election, troll farms connected to the Russian government were accused of helping sway American public sentiment over the vote. These activities are only believed to have increased since then.
The MEK, for its part, has a checkered history. A half-century-old revolutionary group, the organization has cycled through ideologies and tactics — from Marxism to democratic advocacy, from terrorist violence to protests and active lobbying in Washington — to rise to prominence. The turn toward seeking U.S. support is a decade-old tactic for a group that once allied with the Palestinian Liberation Organization and, in the 1980s and 1990s, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussain.
This year, an Intercept investigation documented allegations by former members of the group depicting a cult-like atmosphere inside the organization. The former members detailed practices of forced sterilization, torture, and other methods of controlling followers.
Nonetheless, the MEK now has powerful allies throughout Washington. Most notably, as of today, the group has found a friend in the White House — a president who has never been uncomfortable with blurring the lines between reality and falsehood.
Donald Trump is sharing tweets about Iran from a composite identity run by six guys from a militant cult based in Albania: https://t.co/wobaKrZEXg https://t.co/m7cY8D8pe3
— Murtaza M. Hussain (@MazMHussain) April 22, 2020
Trump retweets a troll account linked to MEK, a terrorist Iranian opposition group that‘s killed Americans and Iranians. This fake account is constantly promoted and amplified by Saudi government media.
Read about the account: https://t.co/dQFYr99rr0 https://t.co/AwUHSCuVHZ
— Negar Mortazavi (@NegarMortazavi) April 22, 2020
Donald Trump MEK Terrorists And The Troll Factory In Albania
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Also read:
https://iran-interlink.org/wordpress/heshmat-alavi-gate-trump-and-mek/
” Heshmat Alavi Gate ” , Trump and MEK
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 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. Heshmat Alavi Gate
MEK Cult Operatives Undermining American Democracy
” Heshmat Alavi Gate ” , Trump and MEK ( Donald Trump MEK Terrorists )
Outrage on Capitol Hill over ‘completely unacceptable’ US-funded scheme to shape Iran debate
‘This is something that happens in authoritarian regimes, not democracies’
United States officials say they are outraged by a government-funded troll campaign that has targeted American citizens critical of the administration’s hardline Iran policy and accused critics of being loyal to the Tehran regime.
State Department officials admitted to Congressional staff in a closed-door meeting on Monday that a project they had funded to counter Iranian propaganda had gone off the rails. Critics in Washington have gone further, saying that the programme resembled the type of troll farms used by autocratic regimes abroad.
“It’s completely unacceptable that American taxpayer dollars supported a project that attacked Americans and others who are critical of the Trump administration’s policy of escalation and conflict with Iran,” a senior Congressional aide told The Independent, on condition of anonymity.
“This is something that happens in authoritarian regimes, not democracies.”
One woman behind the harassment campaign, a longtime Iranian-American activist, has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the State Department over the years to promote “freedom of expression and free access to information.”
The campaign relentlessly attacked critics of the Iran policy on social media, including Twitter and Telegram messaging app, accusing them without evidence of being paid operatives of the regime in Tehran.
A spokeswoman for the State Department told reporters on Monday that funding for the “Iran Disinformation Project” had been suspended and is under review after it was reported that it went beyond the scope of its mandate by veering from countering propaganda from Iran to smearing domestic critics of White House policy.
State Department officials disclosed to lawmakers they had granted $1.5 for Iran Disinfo, which repeatedly targeted, harassed and smeared critics of Trump’s tough stance against Iran on social media.
Among those targeted were American activists, scholars, and journalists who challenged the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure campaign” against Iran.
The revelation that US taxpayer money was being used to attack administration critics has now sparked a flurry of queries.
“There are still so many unanswered questions here,” Congresswoman Ilhan Omar wrote on Twitter. “What rules are in place to prevent state-funded organisation from smearing American citizens? If there wasn’t public outcry, would the Administration have suspended funding for Iran Disinfo?”
Cold War-era US rules barring the use of government-funded propaganda against American citizens have been flouted for decades.
Congresswoman Barbara Lee accused the State Department of giving taxpayer money to operatives “accused of intimidating and harassing U.S. human rights activists, journalists, and academics who’ve criticized their hawkish policies on Iran.”
She added: “This is unacceptable and we will not stand for it.”
State Department officials speaking at the closed-door meeting admitted the project was out of bounds, according to Congressional staffers speaking to The Independent on condition of anonymity.
Both Democratic and Republican Congressional staffers were highly critical of the project and questioned whether US officials should continue to work with the contractor, E-Collaborative for Civic Education. The State Department spokeswoman declined to outline steps to prevent such an operation in the future.
Some have said the harassment campaign resembles those launched by the Iranian regime against its critics, as well as clandestine troll farms run by Russia, Saudi Arabia, and other autocracies in attempts to shape online debate and intimidate critics.
In a twist, Iran Disinfo has even attacked journalists deemed insufficiently supportive of the Trump administration’s policies at US-funded news outlets including Voice of America, Radio Farda, and RFE/RL.
The harassment campaign is one aspect of an Iran policy that critics have warned was overly politicised, incoherent and risky.
Defying American allies, the United Nations Security Council, and the advice of his own intelligence mandarins, Mr Trump voided the 2015 Iran nuclear deal last year and launched an unprecedented campaign of sanctions and threats against Tehran, vowing to pressure the country into cutting a “better deal” than the one it forged with his predecessor, Barack Obama.
Seeking evidence that its policies were working and popular, the administration has relied an unconventional information sources, often citing obscure right-wing news outlets and think tanks.
E-Collaborative for Civic Education, co-founded by Iranian American activist Mariam Memarsadeghi, is a long-time State Department contractor.
It purports to promote democratic political life and empower civil society inside Iran, but it appears to have no presence inside the country and instead confines itself to engaging with Iranians in the Diaspora.
Congressional officials also confirmed to The Independent that one individual working for the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, an influential Washington organisation with hawkish views on Iran, is part of the E-Collaborative for Civic Education’s Iran Disinformation Project.
One Congressional staffer said he expected the State Department would examine “the extent of coordination” between Iran Disinfo project and “pro-war think tanks like the Foundation for Defence of Democracies.”
Over the weekend, The Intercept revealed that a purported Iranian activist, who had published dozens of articles on Iran in prominent outlets such as Forbes and The Hill, does not exist and is a fake persona run by a team of operatives connected to a bizarre Iranian political cult.
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.
Both the Alavi account and the US-funded account frequently accused Iranian Americans sceptical about the Trump administration of being dupes of the Tehran regime.
“It’s an outrage that the Trump Administration was funnelling taxpayer dollars to a smear campaign accusing US citizens of dual loyalty to a foreign regime,” Dylan Williams, vice president of the left-leaning Jewish-American organisation J Street, told The Independent.
“Decent people wouldn’t tolerate such state-sponsored defamation if the target was Jewish Americans and we shouldn’t when the target is Iranian-Americans.”
(End)
” Heshmat Alavi Gate ” , Trump and MEK ( Donald Trump MEK Terrorists )
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White House MEK Trolls and the Iran Case
Remember: MEK was an American excuse to invade Iraq
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Wayne Madsen, Strategic Culture Foundation, April 15 2020:… The influence of the cultish terrorist organization, Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), which used the pandemic to increase pressure on Tehran, is strong within the Trump White House. In addition, the right-wing Florida Republican senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, used the pandemic to coordinate with wealthy Cuban and Venezuelan expatriates in south Florida to… Why the MEK endeavour Trump re-election
Nejat Society, Tehran, April 06 2020:… Inside This Issue: – POMPEO AND MEK ISOLATED BY RESPONSE TO PANDEMIC . Such reckless and futile statements in the name of regime change will not be forgotten or forgiven by Iranians. Nor will the MEK positioning itself alongside the country’s most virulent enemy, the U.S., at its time of greatest need be forgotten… Why the MEK endeavour Trump re-election
Iran Interlink, April 03 2020:… Sputnik Farsi published an article referring to some of these things MEK are claiming, placing them alongside Pompeo’s pronouncements and social media blocking of every account except the MEK and such like. This paints a picture of a cohort coming together for a misinformation and demonisation campaign against Iran of which MEK are part. For… Why the MEK endeavour Trump re-election
Anne and Massoud Khodabandeh, Balkans Post, March 29 2020:… But, as destructive as the MEK presence has been in Albania, the group has inevitably played a greater role in the West’s confrontation against Iran. In June 2019, Murtaza Hussain of The Intercept revealed that an internet troll farm was operating from the MEK’s closed camp in Manez. The enslaved members, sitting behind… Why the MEK endeavour Trump re-election
Murteza Hussain and Matthew Cole, The Intercept, March 22 2020:… From 1997 to 2012, the United States designated the MEK a foreign terrorist organization. But the group, which once opposed U.S. intervention in Iran, has effectively switched sides, becoming a convenient proxy force for Tehran’s enemies, particularly American neoconservatives, the Gulf Arab states, and Israel. The current MEK leadership maintains… Why the MEK endeavour Trump re-election
Iran Interlink, March 21 2020:… Everyone in the world is affected by the Coronavirus crisis and the MEK are not excepted. Massoud Rajavi has issued yet another message ‘Payam number 22’, which prompted a lot of reaction. Commentators say, ‘there’s no way he’s written this because none of it matches up, every sentence is ridiculous’. For example, Rajavi claims “the… Why the MEK endeavour Trump re-election
Financial Tribune, March 15 2020:… “A regime whose president proudly issues the order to assassinate the most decent children of Iran, and his accomplices … shamelessly host the most hated anti-Iran terrorist groups and attend their meetings, has nothing to do with the elevated concept of human rights,” the spokesman was quoted as saying by IRNA. Mousavi was referring to… Why the MEK endeavour Trump re-election
Iran Interlink, February 23 2020:… ++ With the elections in Iran, the MEK sided with Brian Hook, demanding that people don’t vote, etc. Farsi reaction to this included those who ask ‘why don’t you have elections? If Iran’s elections are not good enough for you, why don’t you and your benefactors in Saudi Arabia hold elections yourselves? None of you… Why the MEK endeavour Trump re-election
Press TV, February 13 2020:… The United States’ point man on Iran met with a representative of the anti-Iran Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) terrorist group both before and after Washington’s assassination of senior Iranian commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, a report says. Brian Hook, the US’s special representative for Iran and senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, held the… Why the MEK endeavour Trump re-election
Ebrahim Khodabandeh, Iran Interlink, February 13 2020:… The Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK, MKO, NCRI, NLA, or better known as the Rajavi cult) had a military base in Iraq facilitated by Saddam Hussein and they actively participated against their own county alongside the enemy in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. This was alongside a terrorist campaign waged inside Iran in the early… Why the MEK endeavour Trump re-election
Dr. Olsi Jazexhi, Tirana, Albania, February 12 2020:…In the following video Dr. Olsi Jazexhi discusses with Scott Bennett a former U.S. army psychological operation officer and counter-terrorism analyst the Iran – US conflict and the ways how Israel is using MEK – Mujahedeen e-khalq, ISIS, Jahbat al-Nusra and other terrorist organizations to cause war and destruction in the Middle East.… Why the MEK endeavour Trump re-election
Lachlan Markay, The Daily Beast, February 12 2020:… Brian Hook, a senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the U.S. Special Representative for Iran, met on January 31 with Robert G. Joseph, a former senior State official who now represents the National Council of Resistance of Iran, according to a foreign agent filing that Joseph submitted to the… Why the MEK endeavour Trump re-election
