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Alex MacDonald, Middle East Eye, London, July 28 2019:… The most important of these facts is that the MEK is a cult which keeps its members in Albania in conditions of modern slavery. If the MEK’s supporters want to believe that after not being paid for three decades, they are just ‘volunteers’, then there is not much else they won’t believe. Therefore, it is not a great leap for them to also believe that the MEK is popular among ‘Iranians’ … MEK supporters urge UK PM to use terrorism against Iran
The shadowy cult Trump advisors tout as an alternative to the Iranian government
[ Iran Interlink: In the post-fact world that we now inhabit, it really is no surprise that a random group of political figures have been deceptively persuaded to support the MEK. Although, a little due diligence and fact checking would have revealed to them the central facts about the MEK – which Middle East Eye only refers to in passing as though unimportant; a kind of hat tip to what used to be called ‘journalistic balance’. The most important of these facts is that the MEK is a cult which keeps its members in Albania in conditions of modern slavery. If the MEK’s supporters want to believe that after not being paid for three decades, they are just ‘volunteers’, then there is not much else they won’t believe. Therefore, it is not a great leap for them to also believe that the MEK is popular among ‘Iranians’ instead of being universally despised by Iranians of all stripes. And that it is the ‘contributions’ of these fictional ‘Iranian supporters’ which pays for their political support, and not Saudi money. Whether they know it or not, these political supporters are now advocating that British foreign policy toward Iran should be based on violent regime change – exactly what the MEK has been pursuing since its inception. Fact. ]
MEK supporters urge UK PM to use terrorism against Iran
Stop the ‘appeasement’ Boris! Controversial Iranian opposition group rallies in London
Array of European politicians gather in Trafalgar Square to tell new prime minister he should recognise the MEK, despite them being labelled a ‘cult’
Supporters of a controversial Iranian opposition movement have called on Britain’s new prime minister, Boris Johnson, to recognise it as a government in exile and stop the “appeasement” of the Islamic Republic.
At a rally of thousands of supporters of the National Council of Resistance in Iran (NCRI), a series of Iranian exiles and European politicians, including British, Portuguese and Irish parliamentarians, voiced their support for the group and declared their leader Maryam Rajavi the rightful president of Iran.
As rainclouds gathered above them in London’s Trafalgar Square, NCRI supporters chanted anti-Islamic Republic slogans and the name of Rajavi, while drummers beat martial rhythms and a number of musician guests sang soaring patriotic songs.
Floating yellow balloons carried the words “Free Iran with Maryam Rajavi”, while all the headscarved women at the event wore matching blue hijabs replicating the one Rajavi is always pictured in at public events.
The NCRI, though nominally an umbrella group, is largely dominated by the Mujahedeen e-Khalq (MEK), an organisation founded in the mid-1960s in Iran in opposition to the then-ruler Shah Reza Pahlavi. Though the group was initially supportive of the the 1979 Islamic Revolution, it quickly fell out with new ruler Rohollah Khomenei.
The organisers said the meeting was one of six happening concurrently in other European cities, coming at a time of increasing tensions between Iran and the United States and its allies, not least because of the apparent tit-for-tat seizures of oil tankers by the UK and Tehran off the coast of Gibraltar and in the Strait of Hormuz respectively.
“[Boris Johnson] needs to change the policy which has been pursued by previous governments, who seem to be frightened when there’s no need to fear, frightened to oppose the regime in Iran,” said Brian Binley, a former Conservative MP and longtime NCRI supporter.
“We know it’s an evil regime, we know it’s a false regime, we know it’s a regime not supported by the people, we need to take that message to Boris Johnson, and I promise you that I will do all I can with my colleagues to do just that.”
Among the other speakers at the event were Conservative MP Matthew Offord, Catherine Noone, deputy leader of the Irish senate, Jim Higgins, a former member of the Presidium of the European Parliament, Irish Senator Jerry Horgan and Labour MP Roger Godsiff.
“I fully agree with my colleagues and what the other speakers have said with regards to UK recognising the right of the people of Iran to change the religious dictatorship and support the NCRI, its president elect Maryam Rajavi and her 10-point democratic platform for a future for Iran,” said Godsiff.
“It provides a clear roadmap to establish a free and democratic Iran.”
He, and other speakers, also called on the UK government to follow the US in listing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran’s military elite, as a terrorist organisation. At present only the Quds Force sub-unit is listed as a terrorist organisation in the UK and EU.
Theresa Villiers, a longtime supporter of the MEK in the British parliament, was also set to speak at the event, but pulled out, which an organiser attributed to her promotion to UK environment secretary earlier this week.
At one point it was announced that a message was to be forthcoming from Massoud Rajavi, the organisation’s founder and husband of Maryam, who has not been seen in public (and presumed dead by many) for years.
The video displayed, however, consisted of old footage and speeches spliced together into a new package.
Although the NCRI/MEK has numerous high-profile supporters across the globe – including US National Security Advisor John Bolton and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani – the group has been described as a “cult” in many circles and former members and analysts have said it uses coercive methods against its members.
A report commissioned by the US government in 2009 said the organisation had “many of the typical characteristics of a cult, such as authoritarian control, confiscation of assets, sexual control (including mandatory divorce and celibacy), emotional isolation, forced labour, sleep deprivation, physical abuse and limited exit options”.
Why is this Iranian regime change cult ( Mojahedin-e Khalq) building a base … in Albania?
Currently based in Albania after being driven from their base in Iraq in 2013 – after what the group claims was Iranian pressure – people have complained of relatives being held and brainwashed in the group’s compound.
However, Perviz Khazai, an NCRI representative, laughed at the suggestion the group was a cult.
“We gathered about two years ago about 100,000 people in Paris. We are gathering so many people, so many millions of people are with us – what kind of cult is that? It’s not a cult,” he told Middle East Eye.
“It’s a pluralist group, we have six political parties, many different religions in it – this is the propaganda of the Iranian regime gestapo.”
Despite concerns about the organisation’s structures and methods, the MEK and its supporters are well known to have suffered severe losses at the hands of the Islamic Republic.
1988 saw the mass execution of thousands of MEK supporters by the Iranian government – the group claims as many as 30,000 were killed – and the group’s supporters have been brutally repressed within the country.
“It was 1980, I was only 14 years old, and I was captured and tortured and I lost eight of my teeth – I was almost dead,” Simon, one of the NCRI supporters, told MEE.
Adorned, like many, in a blue jacket adorned with Maryam Rajavi’s face, Simon said he had returned to the streets again after two bouts of jail time and a stint on death row in Iran.
“They said, ‘This is against God, we have to execute you’, and I was supposed to be executed. But because we had one person inside [the jail], he released us in the midnight,” he said.
“So accidently I am alive – but most of my friends have been executed.”
Adorned, like many, in a blue jacket adorned with Maryam Rajavi’s face, Simon said he had returned to the streets again after two bouts of jail time and a stint on death row in Iran.
“They said, ‘This is against God, we have to execute you’, and I was supposed to be executed. But because we had one person inside [the jail], he released us in the midnight,” he said.
“So accidently I am alive – but most of my friends have been executed.”
“I’ve been with the Mujahedeen for 30 years, and over the years I’ve come to know them as honest and for the freedom of Iranian people – not only Iranian people, but everybody,” said Jane Finnerty, who also wore a Rajavi jacket.
A British woman with an Iranian husband – who she said joined the MEK after his sister was abducted by the Iranian government – Finnerty said the British government should recognise the NCRI as the legitimate government of Iran.
“What they want is freedom for their women, for their men, for their children in Iran,” she said.
“I don’t think you will find another organisation that has committed so much to humanity and to the world.”
MEK supporters urge UK PM to use terrorism against Iran
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British MPs should be ashamed of supporting Mojahedin Khalq (MEK, MKO, Maryam Rajavi cult)
Peter Oborne, Middle East Eye, July 07 2018:… Three Tory MPs – along with one Labour MP – travelled to the event, organised by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a front organisation for Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organisation (MEK), once listed by the US as a terror organisation. There is no question that these reflect a powerful and vocal body of sentiment inside the Conservative Party. This has been clear ever since the …
British MPs should be ashamed of supporting regime change in Tehran
The backing inside the Tory party for the MEK, once on the US’s terrorist list, is a sign of a party that has taken leave of its senses
Britain’s prime minister has been fighting a valiant, losing battle to rescue British relations with Iran in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s reckless attempts to wreck them.
But last week Theresa May was dealt a devastating blow to her authority after several Tory MPs defied her by going to Paris for a meeting designed to promote regime change inside Iran. This event is the latest sign that the prime minister and her foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, are facing a mutiny over Iran.
No regime change
Former cabinet minister Theresa Villiers was among senior Tories who travelled to Paris last week to hear Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York and Trump’s highly influential lawyer, call for the downfall of the Iranian government.
This meeting was a direct defiance of British government policy, which aims to save the Iran nuclear deal intact, and is against engineering a change of government in Iran. Indeed, Johnson assured Parliament in May that “I do not believe that regime change in Tehran is the objective that we should be seeking.”
Three Tory MPs – along with one Labour MP – travelled to the event, organised by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a front organisation for Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organisation (MEK), once listed by the US as a terror organisation.
There is no question that these reflect a powerful and vocal body of sentiment inside the Conservative Party.
This has been clear ever since the House of Commons debate on Iran on 9 May. The overwhelming majority of Conservative MPs favoured Trump’s policy of dismantling the JCPOA – and condemned May’s policy of keeping it. The overwhelming majority of speakers (I calculate 19) in the debate spoke out against the JCPOA, and only five were explicitly in favour.
Those opposing the JCPOA included former defence secretary Michael Fallon and former cabinet minister Stephen Crabb. Former leader Iain Duncan Smith also spoke out against the deal in a Commons debate later in May.
Troubling questions
These interventions raise troubling questions about the judgment and the allegiance of Tory backbenchers. So yesterday I approached the three Tory MPs who attended last weekend’s conference in Paris with a series of questions.
I asked them: who paid for and authorised their attendance at the MEK conference? Why as a signatory for the JCPOA are members of the current government pushing for the toppling of a signatory nation? Is it the government’s policy to pursue regime change in Iran? Do they think the MEK actually have popular legitimacy in Iran?
There was no reply from any of them. Tory MP Matthew Offord’s office even hung up the phone on MEE rather than answer legitimate questions.
Then I asked the Conservative Party’s central office if they knew about and had given permission for the Tory MPs to attend. Once again – no response. A wall of silence from all involved. The support inside the Tory party for the MEK looks like a sign of a party that has taken leave of its senses.
Here is an organisation with a proven history of terrorism, including against Western interests. Though founded by the husband and wife team of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, the MEK reportedly forces members to divorce and give up their children to foster care so as to avoid the distraction of familial love.
It has other characteristics of a cult.
For instance, former members also describe participating in regular public confessions of their sexual fantasies. The clear ambition of last week’s meeting was to use the MEK as a vehicle to bring down the current government in Iran.
No coherent plan
This conference in Paris comes against a menacing international background. The Trump administration is working flat out to destabilise Iran through the installation of brutal economic sanctions. Some observers believe the conduct of the US is very similar to the CIA destabilisation campaign aimed at Iranian prime minister Mohammad Mosaddeq in 1953.
The CIA then at least had a clear alternative future in mind for Iran – restoration of the shah under American tutelage. In American terms, this policy was a success for the next two decades. Trump’s people have no coherent plan for Iran.
The cultivation of the MEK – an opposition group based outside Iran and thought to be supported by a rackety coalition of international backers including Saudi Arabia – has strong echoes of Ahmed Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress in the run-up the Iraq invasion in 2003.
Chalabi was hugely influential in convincing the neo-conservative backers of the Iraq invasion that he had strong support inside Iraq and could turn the country into a model state. He was proved wrong.
Giuliani boasted how Trump had “turned his back on that very dangerous nuclear agreement with Iran”. He further boasted that recent popular protests inside Iran have been orchestrated from outside the country, insisting that they “are not happening spontaneously”.
And he ended his speech exclaiming: “Next year, at this time, I want us to have this convention in Tehran!”
Ominously, last year’s chief speaker at the Paris conference was John Bolton, one of the most eloquent advocates of the Iraq invasion, who has now become Trump’s national security adviser. This means that Trump has decided to repeat – in a larger and more dangerous country – all the errors of American policy in Afghanistan and Iraq.
He intends to hand over Iran to politicians with no democratic legitimacy – and no more loyalty to the United States and Western values than America’s former protégés, the Taliban and al-Qaeda. British MPs should be ashamed of helping him.
– Peter Oborne won best commentary/blogging in 2017 and was named freelancer of the year in 2016 at the Online Media Awards for articles he wrote for Middle East Eye. He also was British Press Awards Columnist of the Year 2013. He resigned as chief political columnist of the Daily Telegraph in 2015. His books include The Triumph of the Political Class, The Rise of Political Lying, and Why the West is Wrong about Nuclear Iran.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Additional reporting by Florence Ward
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Parliamentarians (Lord Carlile and others) lose Maryam Rajavi court battle
Mojahedin Khalq (MKO, MEK, Rajavi cult) leaders liable for members’ killings in Iraq
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Also read:
Reza Alghurabi, American Herald Tribune, July 21 2019:… Listed for 17 years as a terrorist organization in the United States and the European Union, with various reports published about its violations of Human Rights and acts of violence and terror, the MEK enjoyed a significant increase in its activities during the first term of Prime Minister Edi Rama’s cabinet . The… MEK supporters urge UK PM to use terrorism against Iran
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… MEK supporters urge UK PM to use terrorism against Iran
The New York Times, May 15 2019:… Bolton’s Alternative is Mujahedeen Khalq, M.E.K.. Tensions between the United States and Iran have sharply increased. John Bolton, the national security adviser, has long pushed for regime change in Iran. One of his chosen replacements is the dissident group Mujahedeen Khalq, known as M.E.K. Bolton Vs. Zarif On MEK Link to the source Skeptical U.S.… MEK supporters urge UK PM to use terrorism against Iran
Massoud Khodabandeh, Iranian.com, May 14 2019:… MEK operatives, brought from Albania, will be deployed to carry out false flag ops that can be blamed on Iran – such as a suicide attack. Albania is now home to the Iranian Mojahedin-e Khalq terrorist cult (MEK) and John Bolton has long believed he can use the MEK to facilitate regime change in Iran. One of those ways is… MEK supporters urge UK PM to use terrorism against Iran
Massoud Khodabandeh, Lobe Log, May 03 2019:… Hillary Clinton did not take money from the MEK while it was listed as a terrorist entity. And taking the group off the U.S. terrorist list, though controversial at the time due to the MEK’s own well-funded pressure campaign, was not wrong, as it enabled the UNHCR to relocate the members to the safety of… MEK supporters urge UK PM to use terrorism against Iran
Borzou Dargahi, THE INDEPENDENT, Originally published September 28 2018:… An Iranian exile group that is a darling of Washington conservatives has set up what critics describe as “a state within a state” inside the tiny Balkan nation of Albania. From a well-guarded 84-acre (340,000 square metres, or 34 hectares) property it has forged on a hillside in the Albanian countryside, the group – called… MEK supporters urge UK PM to use terrorism against Iran
Stephanie Baker, Bloomberg, April 05 2019:… While in Warsaw, just outside the official Iran conference, Rudy Giuliani spoke at a rally organized by the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), a political front controlled by the Mujahedin-e Khalq, or MEK, which has agitated for regime change in Tehran. It was a cold and gray day when Giuliani, his trademark U.S.-flag pin… MEK supporters urge UK PM to use terrorism against Iran
Ebrahim Khodabandeh, March 14 2019:… A charity organisation registered in London called the “International Liberty Association” has launched a widespread campaign under the title “Support the Voice of the People” to collect public donations for a television channel belonging to the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (aka MEK, MKO, NCR, NLA, Rajavi Cult). London is well known for having been a haven for the… MEK supporters urge UK PM to use terrorism against Iran
Anne and Massoud Khodabandeh, Lobe log, March 09 2019:… Hommerich reported that inside the camp in Albania, MEK militants were still practicing the deadly techniques for combat taught them by Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard—“cutting throats with a knife,” “breaking hands,” “removing eyes with fingers,” and “tearing the mouth open.” In 2017, the Trump administration reversed a 2013 plan by former Secretary… MEK supporters urge UK PM to use terrorism against Iran
Luisa Hommerich, Des Spiegel (Spiegel Online), February 19 2019:… Members of the Trump administration have been providing support to a political sect that aims to topple the Iranian regime in Tehran. Around 2,000 of its members live in a camp in Albania. Former members say it is subjecting followers to torture and psychological terror. In 2007, units of the People’s Mujahedin began… MEK supporters urge UK PM to use terrorism against Iran
Tehran Times, Febrauary 17 2019:… MEK IRAN – A German magazine has revealed that members of the MKO, also called MEK, undergo horrific training in a camp in Albania, the Mehr news agency reported on Saturday. Der Spiegel said the members held in the camp practice “cutting throats with knife”, “breaking hand”, “removing eyes with finger” and “tearing down mouth”.… MEK supporters urge UK PM to use terrorism against Iran
TRT, February 16 2019:… The MEK (Mojahedin Khalq, Maryam Rajavi cult) fought alongside Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. That led to them being branded traitors by the Iranian government, who executed thousands of political opponents, including MEK supporters, at the end of the war in 1988. The US State Department added the MEK to its list of terrorist organisations in 1997, and the exact… MEK supporters urge UK PM to use terrorism against Iran
Robert Mackey, The Intercept, February 15 2019:… Off-stage, the U.S. president’s lawyer admitted that he was paid by the exile group, but stressed to reporters that he was in Warsaw on behalf of the MEK in his personal capacity and would not be attending the diplomatic conference organized by the State Department. The Israeli prime minister described the gathering as primarily a meeting of… MEK supporters urge UK PM to use terrorism against Iran
Hamid Debashi, Aljazeera, February 11 2019:… The atrocities of the Islamic Republic over the past 40 years have created an expatriate opposition equally atrocious in its treacherous powermongering. The People’s Mojahedin Organisation (MEK), the monarchists, and their various incarnations have come together collectively to form and discredit the Iranian political opposition. These organisations are now actively collaborating with the US, Israel,… MEK supporters urge UK PM to use terrorism against Iran
Nejat Society, February 11 2019:… A former member of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/MEK/PMOI/Cult of Rajavi) Nabi Ahmadi states new dimensions on the death of Malik Sharaei in the group’s camp in Albania. Malik Sharaei, 47, was one of the few remaining witnesses of the mysterious death of 53 MKO members in Camp Ashraf, Iraq. Nabi Ahmadi asserts that Malik… MEK supporters urge UK PM to use terrorism against Iran
Arron Merat, The Guardian, London, 09 november 2018:… When we spoke recently, Soltani accused Maryam Rajavi of helping Massoud to abuse female MEK members over the years. “[Massoud] Rajavi thought that the only achilles heel [for female fighters] was the opposite sex,” Soltani told me. “He would say that the only reason you women would leave me is a man. So,… MEK supporters urge UK PM to use terrorism against Iran
Aljazeera, September 16 2018:… For all the accusations of disinformation and fake news from both sides, it is rare that we can point to facts, a location, and actual personnel explaining the modus operandi of an organised troll factory. The Listening Post’s Will Yong investigated this story and the trail has led him, surprisingly, to Tirana. the Twitter accounts doing the trolling may… MEK supporters urge UK PM to use terrorism against Iran
