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Mazda Parsi, Nejat Society, August 25 2021:… Matthew Campbell of the Sunday Times published a video report of inside the camp of the Mujahedin Khalq (MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ NCRI/ Cult of Rajavi), in Albania, that he calls “a heavily guarded enclave in rural Albania”. The report is titled “Inside a secretive Iranian resistance camp”. Although many other journalists have so far reported of the curious cult-like life inside MEK’s camps, Campbell’s visit seems to be pre-organized by the group to serve it as a promotional report. Sunday Times Report On MEK Albania
BBC: MEK Terrorist Cult Members In Albania Who Mustn’t Think About Sex
Sunday Times Report On MEK Camp In Albania – Action Talks Louder Than Words
Actions talk better about the normal life inside the MEK’s camp
Matthew Campbell of the Sunday Times published a video report of inside the camp of the Mujahedin Khalq (MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ NCRI/ Cult of Rajavi), in Albania, that he calls “a heavily guarded enclave in rural Albania”. The report is titled “Inside a secretive Iranian resistance camp”. Although many other journalists have so far reported of the curious cult-like life inside MEK’s camps, Campbell’s visit seems to be pre-organized by the group to serve it as a promotional report.
Link to the report:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/peoples-mujahidin-mek-dissidents-seeking-regime-change-in-tehran-rch5w8knc
Campbell is welcome by the group’s spokesperson, Shahin Ghobadi and in a very rare occasion he is allowed to interview Maryam Rajavi, who is present in the camp to address the group’s annual gathering. Indeed, Maryam Rajavi never holds press conferences or TV interviews with independent media.
However, the Sunday Time correspondent seems to diagnose of something going wrong during his visit of “a curious domain, a land unto its own that few outsiders have visited”, “a mysterious state within a state”. Visiting the glamorous newly-built MEK camp Ashraf Three, he realizes that he and his colleagues are given “a carefully staged tour designed to show normal life in the camp”. “We were never allowed to stray far from nimbert-like minders”, he says. “The camp’s leaders allowed us to interview handpicked militants.”
Moving through the itinerary designed by the MEK leaders, the atmosphere of the camp is still mysterious for the visitors from the ST. He wonders how come that such huge facilities are not used by the inhabitants of the camp. “With piped-in music, almost an acre of shiny floor space and giant television screens at one end and a coffee bar at the other, the “media center” reminds me of an airport departure lounge, but it is virtually empty,” Campbell writes.
Camp Ashraf 3 in Albania
Campbell seems not to be so impressed by the “carefully-staged tour” around the MEK’s camp. The show-off is so repulsive that he utters, “Today my guides seem keen to convey a flavor of normal life in the camp”. “It is a complete society, modern and self-sufficient,” Shahin Gobadi “enthuses” as Campbell and his team arrive at the camp’s bakery.
The handpicked interviewees of the ST reporter in Camp Ashraf can speak English quite fluently –while we see a large number of defectors who cannot speak English after so many years of living abroad. No interviewed member was a war prisoner of Iran-Iraq war deceived by MEK recruiters, no one was kidnapped by MEK agents in Turkey or UEA while he was looking for a job or immigration to Europe.
The most noticeable interviewee is Maliheh Totounchian who works in the computer room (read troll farm) of the camp. The considerable item about her is that according to Campbell, “On the desk next to her is a photograph of her husband, Hossein, executed in the 1988 “massacre”. She looks at it with the sad eyes that are a hallmark of older activists. “I think of him every day,” she says.”
Maliheh thinks of her husband every day! How is it possible in the MEK? Based on the testimonies of all, exactly all, defectors of the Mujahedin Khalq, thinking of your family, dead or alive, spouse or child, whatever, is absolutely forbidden in the MEK regulations. Maliheh has been surely given a photo of his husband to put it on her desk during the tour of ST team. The photo would be confiscated by the commanders immediately after the end of the tour.
By Mazda Parsi
Devil Lives In Tirana . Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK or Rajavi Cult)
Sunday Times Report On MEK Camp In Albania – Action Talks Louder Than Words
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Also read:
https://iran-interlink.org/wordpress/mek-base-in-albania-they-gave-us-a-tour/
MEK Base In Albania – They Gave Us a Tour
Patrick Kingsley, The New York Times, February 16 2020:… I wasn’t shown the computer suites, which defectors had portrayed as a kind of troll farm: junior members using multiple accounts on Facebook and Twitter, typing messages that criticize the Iranian government, lionize the M.E.K. leadership and promote its paid lobbyists. When Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Bolton made public speeches in recent years, members were ordered “to take a particular line and tweet it 10 times from different accounts,” said Mr. Mohammadian, the former member. I was taken to an empty gym, and then to a small cafeteria. It was already close to midnight, but a small group of women had been told to wait up for me. MEK Base In Albania – They Gave Us a Tour
Nobody Can Be “Comfortable” With Regime Change Involving MEK
MEK Base In Albania – They Gave Us a Tour
Highly Secretive Iranian Rebels Are Holed Up in Albania. They Gave Us a Tour.
Depending on whom you ask, the People’s Jihadists are Iran’s government-in-waiting or a duplicitous terrorist cult that forbids sexual thoughts. What are they doing in Albania?
MEK Camp In Albania
The entrance to the camp housing members of the Mujahedeen Khalq, or People’s Jihadists, near Manez, Albania.Credit…Tara Todras-Whitehill for The New York Times
MANEZ, Albania — In a valley in the Albanian countryside, a group of celibate Iranian dissidents have built a vast and tightly guarded barracks that few outsiders have ever entered.
Depending on whom you ask, the group, the Mujahedeen Khalq, or People’s Jihadists, are either Iran’s replacement government-in-waiting or a duplicitous terrorist cult. Journalists are rarely allowed inside the camp to judge for themselves, and are sometimes rebuffed by force.
But after President Trump’s decision to assassinate Qassim Suleimani, a powerful Iranian general, it seemed worth trying again. Would a group that claims to want a democratic, secular Iran allow a reporter inside their camp?
The group’s loudest allies include Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, and John R. Bolton, his former National Security Adviser. Both have received tens of thousands of dollars for speaking at the group’s conferences, where these influential Americans describe the People’s Jihadists as Iran’s most legitimate opposition.
Initially, the group ignored several requests for access. So less in hope than desperation, I drove to its base and presented my credentials to a guard.
Three hours later, shortly before sunset, I got a call. To my surprise, I was being allowed inside. So began a series of interviews, propaganda sessions and tours that lasted until 1:30 a.m. A New York Times photographer was admitted several days later.
The group perhaps hoped to correct the impression left by previous journalistic encounters. A visit in 2003 by a Times reporter to the group’s former base in Iraq ended badly after her subjects spoke from a rehearsed script, and she was barred from talking to people in private.
Credit…Tara Todras-Whitehill for The New York Times
This time around, most residents were off limits, but officials did allow private interviews with several members.
At my request, these included Somayeh Mohammadi, 39, whose family has argued for nearly two decades that she is being held against her will.
“This is my choice,” said Ms. Mohammedi, after her commanders left the room. “If I want to leave, I can leave.”
While the group may not have tried to hide Ms. Mohammedi, there were several odd and telling moments when secrets were tightly held.
In particular, senior officials stumbled when asked about the whereabouts of the group’s nominal leader, Massoud Rajavi, who vanished in 2003.
“Where is he?” said Ali Safavi, the group’s main representative in Washington. “Well, we can’t talk about that, that’s … ”
He trailed off, staring at his feet.
Is he still alive? Is he in Albania?
“We can’t talk about it,” Mr. Safavi replied, after several seconds of silence.
Credit…Adrian Dennis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Founded in 1965 to oppose the Shah of Iran, the group later rejected the theocracy that replaced him.
Immediately following the revolution, the group attracted significant public support and emerged as a leading source of opposition to the new theocratic regime, according to Professor Ervand Abrahamian, a historian of the group.
The group claims it still attracts significant support, but Mr. Abrahamian said its popularity plummeted after becoming more violent in the early 1980s.
“When you talk to people who lived through the revolution, and you mention the name ‘Mujahedeen’, they shudder,” said Mr. Abrahamian.
By the 1980s, the group’s ideology had begun to center on Mr. Rajavi and his wife, Maryam.
To prove their devotion to the Rajavis, members were told to divorce their spouses and renounce romance.
At the time, the group was based in Iraq, under the protection of Saddam Hussein.
Its destiny changed after the American-led invasion of Iraq. After an initial standoff, the group, also known as the M.E.K., gave up its weapons. Despite having been listed by America as a terrorist organization in 1997, it was placed under American protection.
But in 2009, American troops ceded responsibility for the M.E.K. to the Iraqi government. Led by politicians sympathetic to Iran, the Iraqi authorities tacitly allowed Iran-allied militias to attack the group.
American and United Nations diplomats began searching for a safer country to house the group. After intensive lobbying by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, the American government also removed them from a list of terrorist organizations in 2012.
A year later, they were finally welcomed by Albania. The Albanian government hoped its hospitality would curry favor with Washington, according to the foreign minister between 2013 and 2019, Ditmir Bushati.
Credit…Tara Todras-Whitehill for The New York Times
The group purchased several fields in a valley 15 miles west of Tirana, the capital, and built a camp there.
When I visited, the base seemed oddly empty. The group claims it houses about 2,500 members. But across the two days, we saw no more than 200.
The others seemed to have been sequestered away — or to have left the group altogether.
Dozens of former members now live independently in Albania. I met 10 of them, who each described being brainwashed into a life of celibacy.
Inside the group, they said romantic relationships and sexual thoughts were banned, contact with family highly restricted, and friendships discouraged.
All recounted being forced to participate in self-criticism rituals, whereby members would confess to their commanders any sexual or disloyal thoughts they had.
Credit…Tara Todras-Whitehill for The New York Times
“Little by little, you are broken,” said Abdulrahman Mohammadian, 60, who joined the group in 1988 and left in 2016. “You forget yourself and you change your personality. You only obey rules. You are not yourself. You are just a machine.”
The group strongly denied the accusations and portrays many of its critics, including Mr. Mohammadian, as Iranian spies.
I was taken on a three-hour tour of a museum about the M.E.K.’s history, where the exhibits did not mention Saddam Hussein or forced celibacy. Instead, they focused on the group’s persecution.
Some rooms had been turned into replica torture chambers, to explain how Iranian jailers punished and interrogated supporters during the 1980s.
In each room, members waited in silence for me. These turned out to be survivors of the torture — ready to personally explain each method of repression.
Credit…Tara Todras-Whitehill for The New York Times
One survivor, Raheem Moussavi, stood beside a bloodied mannequin and slowly detailed the four different techniques the Iranian torturers used to beat him. The process culminated in being whipped by a metallic cat-o’-nine tails.
Searching for influence, the group has turned increasingly to the internet.
I was shown a recording studio, where two musicians compose anti-regime songs and music videos for release on Iranian social media.
Credit…Tara Todras-Whitehill for The New York Times
I wasn’t shown the computer suites, which defectors had portrayed as a kind of troll farm: junior members using multiple accounts on Facebook and Twitter, typing messages that criticize the Iranian government, lionize the M.E.K. leadership and promote its paid lobbyists.
When Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Bolton made public speeches in recent years, members were ordered “to take a particular line and tweet it 10 times from different accounts,” said Mr. Mohammadian, the former member.
I was taken to an empty gym, and then to a small cafeteria. It was already close to midnight, but a small group of women had been told to wait up for me.
Credit…Tara Todras-Whitehill for The New York Times
They scoffed at the idea of the troll farm. As for the limits on their private lives, they said such discipline was necessary when battling as cruel an adversary as the government of Iran.
“You can’t have a personal life,” said Shiva Zahedi, “when you’re struggling for a cause.”
After I left, the group put me in touch with three former American military officers who had helped guard an M.E.K. camp in Iraq after the American invasion.
Each spoke glowingly about the M.E.K., and said its members had been free to leave since the American military began protecting it in 2003.
American officers had access to every area of the Iraqi base, and found no prison cells or torture facilities, said Brig. Gen. David Phillips, who commanded the military policemen guarding the camp in 2003 and 2004.
“I wanted to find weapons, I wanted to find people tied to beds,” General Phillips said. “We never found it.”
But other records and witnesses gave a more complex account.
Capt. Matthew Woodside, a former naval reservist who oversaw American policy at the Iraqi camp between 2004 and 2005, was not one of those whom the M.E.K. suggested I contact.
He said that in reality American troops did not have regular access to camp buildings or to group members whose relatives said they were held by force.
Credit…Tara Todras-Whitehill for The New York Times
The M.E.K. leadership tended to let members meet American officials and relatives only after a delay of several days, Captain Woodside said.
“They fight for every single one of them,” he said.
It became so hard for some members, particularly women, to flee that two of them ended up trying to escape in a delivery truck, he recalled.
“I find that organization absolutely repulsive,” Captain Woodside said. “I am astounded that they’re in Albania.”
Besar Likmeta contributed reporting.
End
MEK Base In Albania – They Gave Us a Tour
MEK Camp In Albania
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The Many Faces of the MEK, Explained By Its Former Top Spy Massoud Khodabandeh
Secret MEK troll factory in Albania uses modern slaves (aka Mojahedin Khalq, MKO, NCRI ,Rajavi cult)
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Remember: MEK was an American excuse to invade Iraq
Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY, May 31 2019:… Bush branded Iraq part of an “axis of evil” for harboring, financing and aiding terrorists Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, or MEK. Bolton’s first encounters with the MEK took place in Iraq, where for a period it had aligned itself with Hussein’s government, which was fighting a war with Iran. The Iranian opposition group Bolton was referring to in his New York Times opinion article is the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a controversial Paris-based political organization also known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, or MEK . ( Also Ali Safavi NCRI )
Ali Safavi, commander of Saddam’s Private Army, Mojahein Khalq NCRI Now writting as Dr. Safavi!!
Remember: MEK was an American excuse to invade Iraq
Escalating Iran crisis looks a lot like the path US took to Iraq war
The U.S. military’s guided bombs brought “shock and awe” to Baghdad in 2003 when American forces invaded Iraq 16 years ago to hunt for weapons of mass destruction. They never found any. Many observers, today, consider that war a failure.
Now, half of all Americans believe the U.S. will go to war with Iran “within the next few years,” according to a Reuters/Ipsos public opinion poll released in late May amid increased tensions between the two countries, longtime geopolitical foes.
The escalating Tehran-Washington crisis comes as the White House claims, without providing detail or public evidence, that Iran poses an increased threat to American forces and facilities in the Middle East – one year after Trump withdrew from an accord between Iran and world powers aimed at limiting Tehran’s nuclear capabilities.
Trump’s hawks: Bolton amps up Iran sabotage claims, desire for nuclear weapons
Is Iran doomed to be an Iraq redux? This is just one of the questions raised by a crisis that has eerie parallels to the missteps that led to the Iraq War in 2003, where the buildup to conflict was precipitated by faulty intelligence and confrontational foreign policymakers such as John Bolton in President George W. Bush’s administration.
To make sense of what’s happening now, here’s what happened then:
- Operation Desert Storm – the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War – came to an end 42 days after a U.S.-led offensive was launched in response to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s invasion of neighboring Kuwait. Iraq’s dictator accused Kuwait and Saudi Arabia of conspiring to keep oil prices artificially low for western consumers. President George H.W. Bush declared a ceasefire on February 28, 1991, as Iraqi forces in Kuwait surrendered or fled back to Iraq. About 700,000 American service members were deployed to the Gulf for the short war; 383 were killed.
- When President George W. Bush became president in 2001, Hussein was back on the agenda. “There were a number of people in the Department of Defense who wanted to pursue a certain policy course. I don’t think they ever took their eyes off of Iraq,” former CIA Director John Brennan said in a 2007 National Geographic documentary about the 2003 Iraq War. “There was still a great deal of residual feeling that we should not have stopped the first Persian Gulf War when we did, but rather continue into Baghdad and topple Saddam Hussein,” ex-Senator and ex-Florida governor Bob Graham said in the same documentary.
- Among the figures Brennan and Graham were referring to: Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Bolton, who had worked as a lawyer for the Bush campaign to block recount efforts in Florida that led to state officials awarding the 2000 election to Bush over Democratic candidate Al Gore.
- Bolton was a lifelong staunch conservative with hawkish views on foreign policy. For a start, he abhorred multilateralism. “There is no United Nations. There is an international community that occasionally can be led by the only real power left in the world, and that’s the United States,” he said of the international organization in 1994, adding: “The secretariat building in New York has 38 stories. If you lost 10 stories today, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference.” Years later, Bolton’s nomination to be U.S. Ambassador to the UN was blocked because of his hardline views. He would also call for the U.S. to make pre-emptive strikes against North Korea.
- The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York City and Washington shifted the Bush administration’s focus to hunting Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan, where the ruling Taliban had given shelter to the al-Qaeda’s leader, who masterminded the attacks. But Iraq was also on the radar of the Pentagon’s military planners, who feared that Hussein might try to support or orchestrate an equally, or worse, catastrophic assault on U.S. soil “We’re also working to prepare our nation for the next war,” Rumsfeld said at a briefing on Afghanistan in late 2001, referring to Iraq.
- In January 2002, Bush branded Iraq part of an “axis of evil” for harboring, financing and aiding terrorists, and for its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Also members of the club: Iran and North Korea. These countries, Bush said, “are threatening the peace of the world.” He cast aside more dovish voices in his cabinet who urged him to pursue a diplomatic path in Iraq, saying “we can’t wait for the final proof, the smoking gun, that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.”
- Around the same time, Bolton, then serving as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security affairs in Bush’s administration, was becoming a key player in pushing for a military confrontation with Iraq, saying in a BBC radio debate that he was “confident” that Iraq had “hidden” weapons of mass destruction, including chemical weapons and production facilities. “The U.S. has already decided the outcome of this story – Saddam will be left with no weapons of mass destruction – but how that point is reached is up to Saddam Hussein,” Bolton said in the debate in London. He was also making unverified claims about other countries he wanted included in Bush’s “axis of evil,” testifying to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs that Cuba was secretly developing a biological weapons program that could be used in warfare against American forces and civilian targets by “rogue states.” Bolton provided no details when questioned. A subsequent Senate investigation found no evidence supporting his assertions.
- In the months leading up to the Iraq War in 2003, Cheney appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” with a further warning: “The situation, I think, that leads a lot of people to be concerned about Iraq has to do not just with their past activity of harboring terrorists, but also with Saddam Hussein’s behavior over the years and with his aggressive pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.”
- Despite not being able to produce clear “smoking gun” evidence of Hussein’s “hidden” program to acquire weapons of mass destruction, Bush, buoyed by key advisors such as Bolton, opted for war with Iraq. When he was not able to get an express United Nations Security Council mandate to do so he pursued a “coalition of the willing” that included Australia, Britain, Japan, Spain and others.
- After the U.S. invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003, Hussein spent nine months on the run before he was found hiding in an eight-foot-deep hole near his hometown of Tikrit. An Iraqi court convicted Hussein of crimes against humanity, for using deadly gas against Iraqi Kurds and other transgressions, and he was later executed by hanging. No evidence of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction was found. The war was viewed as a fiasco, not only of intelligence, but because it further destabilized the region, contributed to the formation of the Islamic State terrorist group and led to the violent deaths of more 200,000 Iraqi civilians and at least 4,500 American troops. It added more than $1 trillion to U.S. government debt. Iraq’s economy, security and government remain in a fragile state.
- In an opinion article in The Guardian in 2013, Bolton wrote: “Overthrowing Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003 achieved important American strategic objectives. Our broad international coalition accomplished its military mission with low casualties and great speed, sending an unmistakable signal of power and determination throughout the Middle East and around the world. Despite all the criticism of what happened after Saddam’s defeat, these facts are indisputable.”
- Meanwhile, with the failed outcome of the 2003 Iraq War still plain to see, Bolton started ramping up his outspoken criticism of Iran’s Islamic Republic. In 2009, as President Barack Obama’s administration entered into what would turn out to be almost five years of negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, Bolton said: “Ultimately, the only thing that will stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons is regime change in Tehran.” As the deal entered its final stages, Bolton advocated in a New York Times opinion piece that the U.S. join forces with Israel: “Time is terribly short, but a strike can still succeed. Such action should be combined with vigorous American support for Iran’s opposition, aimed at regime change in Tehran,” he wrote. The articled was headlined: “To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran.”
- Also troubling: The Iranian opposition group Bolton was referring to in his New York Times opinion article is the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a controversial Paris-based political organization also known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, or MEK. Along with Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, Bolton is long-time supporter of the exiled opposition group and has been paid to speak at its annual rallies. The MEK is often described by observers of its activities, including by humanitarian groups and even a U.S. government research document from 2012, as displaying “cultlike behavior.” The MEK’s reported abuses – vigorously denied to USA TODAY by its senior leadership who claim they result from a vicious and protracted “disinformation campaign” by Iran’s clerical rulers – range from torture and forced celibacy to holding members against their will, sometimes in solitary confinement. The MEK says its critics are often spies for the Iranian regime. Bolton’s first encounters with the MEK took place in Iraq, where for a period it had aligned itself with Hussein’s government, which was fighting a war with Iran.
- When Bolton joined the Trump administration as national security adviser in 2018, replacing seasoned former Army officer Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, he continued his public saber rattling and criticism of Iran by releasing a video on the 40th anniversary of the Iranian revolution via the White House’s official Twitter channel. In the video, Bolton calls Iran “the central banker of international terrorism” and accuses Tehran of pursuing nuclear weapons and missiles to deliver them and of “tyrannizing its own people and terrorizing the world.” The video ends with a direct threat to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader: “I don’t think you’ll have many more anniversaries to enjoy,” Bolton says.
- Iran’s interest in nuclear technology dates to the 1950s, when it received help from a U.S.-backed program promoted by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who wanted to share U.S. nuclear expertise with other countries for peaceful purposes, such as energy production. But after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution and a U.S. hostage crisis at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran effectively ended relations between the two nations, U.S. intelligence agencies have long suspected, without explicit evidence, that Iran has attempted to use its civilian nuclear program as a cover for clandestine weapons development. Obama’s 2015 nuclear accord was designed to prevent that and the UN’s nuclear watchdog has repeatedly verified through inspections and other safeguards that Iran has been complying with the terms of the agreement, even after the U.S. withdrew from it and Washington re-imposed sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy. Bolton has regularly decried those inspections as ineffectual, believes the nuclear accord was a sham and has advocated for a far bolder Iran policy that aggressively addresses Iran’s support for anti-American shia militias and Tehran’s ballistic missile program.
- Most Iran experts, political scientists and many U.S. lawmakers believe that it is this – Bolton’s desire, like in Iraq, to confront Iran – that underpins a still-unexplained decision by the Pentagon to deploy warships, B-52 bombers and missiles to the Persian Gulf earlier this month in response to unspecified threats from Iran in the region. The U.S. also plans to send 900 additional troops to the Middle East and extend the stay of another 600 who are part of tens of thousands of others on the ground there. “The previous administration appeased the Islamic Republic of Iran. So we are pushing back. And when you push back, tension does increase,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, another Iran hawk in the Trump administration, said in response to efforts to get clarity over the moves.
- In recent days, Bolton also has accused Iran of being behind a string of incidents in the Persian Gulf, including what officials allege was sabotage of oil tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates and a rocket that landed near the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, while Yemen’s Iranian-aligned Houthi rebels launched a string of drone attacks targeting Saudi Arabia. Iran has mostly avoided addressing the allegations, although it has said it doesn’t fear a war with the U.S. It has also signaled that its patience with the nuclear deal is wearing thin and threatened to resume uranium enrichment at levels higher than the accord permits. Speaking in Abu Dhabi, Bolton said Wednesday that there had been a previously unknown attempt to attack the Saudi oil port of Yanbu as well. “Who else would you think is doing it? Somebody from Nepal?” Bolton said that there was “no reason” for Iran to back out of the nuclear deal other than to seek atomic weapons.
- As for Trump’s position on Iran, nobody seems to know the president’s mind, not even, perhaps, the president. Trump has oscillated between overtly aggressive rhetoric and seemingly conciliatory statements. “We have no indication that anything’s happened or will happen, but if it does, it will be met obviously with great force,” Trump said last week at the White House. While on a four-day visit to Japan, Trump denied he wants regime change in Iran and said it’s not the goal. Some national security experts believe that Bolton’s role in pushing for war with Iran has been exaggerated, and that his influence on the president has been overstated. Still, there have been few Iran-related denials from Bolton, although just hours after the publication of this story, Bolton told a group of reporters while on a trip to London: “The policy we’re pursuing is not a policy of regime change. That’s the fact and everybody should understand it that way.”
Trump says he doesn’t want war: Is Bolton driving the U.S. into a conflict anyway?
Inside Iran: America’s contentious history in Iran leads to anger, weariness, worry
(End)
Remember: MEK was an American excuse to invade Iraq Fake MEK Writers
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Ali Safavi MEK Spkesman: Am I a conman?
Mojahedin Khalq (MEK)Terrorist Commander Also Ali Safavi poses as a human rights advocate to fool the Financial Times
Iran Interlink, December 12 2015:… Iranian exile Ali Safavi, who previously enjoyed infamy as a commander in Saddam’s private army – the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq (MEK) – and who is wanted in Iraq on charges of torture and murder, has now emerged as a ‘human rights’ blogger in the normally conservative Financial Times. Safavi’s personal blog has …
Ali Safavi, commander of Saddam’s Private Army, Mojahein Khalq
Now writting as Dr. Safavi!!
Mojahedin Khalq (MEK)Terrorist Commander Also Ali Safavi poses as a human rights advocate to fool the Financial Times
Iranian exile Ali Safavi, who previously enjoyed infamy as a commander in Saddam’s private army – the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq (MEK) – and who is wanted in Iraq on charges of torture and murder, has now emerged as a ‘human rights’ blogger in the normally conservative Financial Times.
Safavi’s personal blog has been reinvented as propaganda for the MEK by publishing it as article for its National Council of Resistance of Iran website – which curiously has no Farsi language on it whatsoever. This is the site the MEK uses when it wants to disguise its violent beliefs for Western audiences, posing instead as a political, now human rights, organisation.
When the MEK’s main benefactor Saddam Hussein was removed from power in 2003, its leader Massoud Rajavi became a fugitive whose whereabouts are unknown. His wife, Maryam Rajavi claimed refugee status in Paris along with her former husband Mehdi Abrishamchi. Commander Safavi came along with them. They were quickly arrested on terrorism charges and are still under investigation. The rest of the organisation were left at the mercy of vengeful Iraqis who regard them as part of Saddam’s repressive apparatus – his own private army – responsible for the deaths of 25,000 Iraqi civilians.
While the FT is free to publish a variety of views on Iran, the editors should be aware of the hypocrisy of this particular writer. The MEK is reviled by Iranians both inside and outside the country. (The MEK doesn’t even try to pretend the NCRI represents any Iranian constituency and therefore doesn’t need any Farsi on its website.) A blog by anyone associated with the MEK will certainly not enhance the reputation of the Financial Times, rather it will provoke contempt among right minded Iranians and negatively impact the already difficult work of genuine opposition groups who are advocating for their people.
Ali Safavi as the commander of Saddam’s Private Army in Camp Ashraf Iraq
Behind Struan Stevenson’s book “Self Sacrifice
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MEK doesn’t look like a legitimate group ( Ali Safavi Mojahedin Khalq, MKO, NCRI, Maryam Rajavi cult, …)
Iran Didban (From CODPINK), July 25 2018:… Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin and national director Ariel Gold dropped in on MEK members in their Washington office, trying to meet with their officials. Ali Safavi, a senior member of MEK, surprised by the unexpected visit, did not let them in the office, saying, “go to our website”. He went onto say that they were “not allowed to film this” or “I will call the police.” White House MEK Trolls and the Iran Case
MEK doesn’t look like a legitimate group (Mojahedin Khalq, MKO, NCRI, Maryam Rajavi cult, …)
Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin and national director Ariel Gold dropped in on MEK members in their Washington office, trying to meet with their officials.
Ali Safavi, a senior member of MEK, surprised by the unexpected visit, did not let them in the office, saying, “go to our website”. He went onto say that they were “not allowed to film this” or “I will call the police.”
Benjamin said, “I think this organization is very secretive. This is the organization that John Bolton gets $ 180K from for speaking engagements.”
She added, “It’s the organization that Rudy Giuliani loves and says next year in Tehran. But they don’t even answer our e-mails and phone calls or agree to meet with us.”
“They don’t even give us a booklet explaining what their organization is about. So it’s very fishy. It doesn’t look like a legitimate group to me.”
CODEPINK Co-Founder Medea Benjamin and National Director Ariel Gold tried to meet with officials from the The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran office in D.C. As you can see, they were not receptive. Bolton wants to attack Iran & put these folks in power? It’s a repeat of the Iraqi National Congress debacle after the US invaded Iraq! Take action to support diplomacy with Iran: codepink.org/rouhani
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White House MEK Trolls and the Iran Case Fake MEK Writers
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Secretive MKO (Mojahedin Khalq, MEK) Cult Member Refuses to Talk to Peace Activists in DC (+Video)
Iran Interlink, February 09 2019:… MEK Camp In Albania Maryam Rajavi headed a ‘protest’ in Paris yesterday using paid participants to promote her regime change agenda against Iran. Rajavi is afraid of being overlooked by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s Iran Action Group run from inside the State Department. Pompeo will hold a summit in Warsaw next week where it is predicted Iranian opposition…Also Ali Safavi NCRI White House MEK Trolls and the Iran Case Fake MEK Writers MEK Base In Albania – They Gave Us a Tour Sunday Times Report On MEK Camp In Albania
Muhammad Sahimi, Lobe Log, February 07 2019:… MEK Camp In Albania According to documents filed online by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the political arm of the MEK, Uskowi has repeatedly met with NCRI’s Alireza Jafarzadeh. Iranians consider Jafarzadeh the “foreign minister” of the MEK leader, Maryam Rajavi. Bolton and Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, have been long-time lobbyists for the MEK, receiving large fees for their lobby…Also Ali Safavi NCRI White House MEK Trolls and the Iran Case Fake MEK Writers MEK Base In Albania – They Gave Us a Tour Sunday Times Report On MEK Camp In Albania
Nejat Society, February 07 2019:… MEK Camp In Albania One of the fears expressed by many Iranians, people who detest the current regime but do not take active measures to overthrow it, is that because there is no clear alternative, they are afraid the West would interfere again and impose a regime they don’t want, such as the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK)—the People’s Mojahedin Organization of… Also Ali Safavi NCRI White House MEK Trolls and the Iran Case Fake MEK Writers MEK Base In Albania – They Gave Us a Tour Sunday Times Report On MEK Camp In Albania
Behnam Gharagozli, Iranian.com, February 06 2019:… MEK Camp In Albania One manifestation of this trend is witnessing how the MEK was somehow transformed from a terrorist organization to a dissident Iranian organization after only a short time. This transformation from terrorist to dissident just so happened to occur after the MEK’s base in Iraq was sacked (the MEK had been an ally of Saddam Hussein) and the… Also Ali Safavi NCRI White House MEK Trolls and the Iran Case Fake MEK Writers MEK Base In Albania – They Gave Us a Tour Sunday Times Report On MEK Camp In Albania
Borzou Dargahi, Independent, February 05 2019:… MEK Camp In Albania – They Gave Us a Tour MEK, a bizarre but influential Iranian political cult dedicated to overthrowing the government in Tehran. The group has cultivated strong ties to the Trump administration and others in Washington, as well as to Saudi Arabia, Iran’s arch-nemesis. Several leading Trump administration figures including John Bolton and Rudy Giuliani spoke at the 30 June event, though neither… Also Ali Safavi NCRI White House MEK Trolls and the Iran Case Fake MEK Writers MEK Base In Albania – They Gave Us a Tour Sunday Times Report On MEK Camp In Albania
Robert Azzi, Concord monitor, February 03 2019:… MEK Camp In Albania – They Gave Us a Tour Bolton is a longtime supporter of the Mujahedeen Khalq (MEK), a cultist Iranian dissident group that advocates for regime change in Iran. MEK, which was on our State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations from 1997 to 2012, is still suspected of the assassination of six Americans and the bombings of American companies in… Also Ali Safavi NCRI White House MEK Trolls and the Iran Case Fake MEK Writers MEK Base In Albania – They Gave Us a Tour Sunday Times Report On MEK Camp In Albania
Iran Interlink, February 01 2019:… MEK Camp In Albania – They Gave Us a Tour As Pompeo’s Warsaw summit approaches, the MEK are on overdrive spewing out lies. In Farsi they have been caught out over five times putting words in the mouths of EU officials etc. which are simply lies. Farsi reaction says that US warmongers and their puppets are panicking, especially after Europe’s SPV announcement on trade with Iran… Also Ali Safavi NCRI White House MEK Trolls and the Iran Case Fake MEK Writers MEK Base In Albania – They Gave Us a Tour Sunday Times Report On MEK Camp In Albania
Press TV, February 01 2019:… MEK Camp In Albania – They Gave Us a Tour the utilization of the MEK/MKO terrorist organization to assassinate Iranian scientists in Tehran, even as the United States maintains high-level public contacts with the MEK/MKO leadership in Albania; the co-optation of the Trump regime by Zionist forces which has facilitated the theft of East Jerusalem, the continued illegal Israeli settlements on the West Bank, and Israel’s… Also Ali Safavi NCRI Also Ali Safavi NCRI vWhite House MEK Trolls and the Iran Case Fake MEK Writers MEK Base In Albania – They Gave Us a Tour Sunday Times Report On MEK Camp In Albania
MEK Camp In Albania – They Gave Us a Tour Fake MEK Writers A spokesman for the Dutch prosecution service told the BBC: “We have two men in custody who are suspected of being involved in the death. The investigation has not led to any signs of involvement of Iranian authorities.” The 56-year-old is suspected of being Mohammad Reza Kolahi Samadi, who was accused of planting a bomb that resulted in the deadliest attack… Also Ali Safavi NCRI White House MEK Trolls and the Iran Case Fake MEK Writers MEK Base In Albania – They Gave Us a Tour Sunday Times Report On MEK Camp In Albania
Thierry Meyssan, Mint Press News, January 31 2019:… MEK Camp In Albania – They Gave Us a Tour Fake MEK Writers John Bolton’s links with the MEK date back to the Bush administration. They were strengthened by his presence – for a price of 40,000 dollars – during their annual meetings at Villepinte (France), in 2010 and 2017. Having become the National Security Advisor, he now unites the jihadists from Daesh and the loyal… Also Ali Safavi NCRI White House MEK Trolls and the Iran Case Fake MEK Writers MEK Base In Albania – They Gave Us a Tour Sunday Times Report On MEK Camp In Albania
Stephen Gottlieb, WAMC, Morning Edition, January 30 2019:… MEK Camp In Albania MEK Base In Albania – They Gave Us a Tour Fake MEK Writers The MEK has been the darling of the Administration as a potential successor to the mullahs because they both dislike the Iranian regime. Never mind that the MEK objected when Khomeini decided to release the hostages, that it has been a terrorist organization and killed Americans. Never mind that it has no support… Also Ali Safavi NCRI White House MEK Trolls and the Iran Case Fake MEK Writers MEK Base In Albania – They Gave Us a Tour Sunday Times Report On MEK Camp In Albania
Nejat Society, January 30 2019:… MEK Base In Albania – They Gave Us a Tour Fake MEK Writers In 2014, this organization (Mojahedin Khalq MEK MKO NCRI Rajavi cult …) financed the vast majority of the Vox campaign for the European companies led by Vidal-Quadras. The PP exec exempted did not obtain a seat and although the far-right formation directed by Santiago Abascal has affirmed that it was audited by the Court of Auditors,… Also Ali Safavi NCRI White House MEK Trolls and the Iran Case Fake MEK Writers MEK Base In Albania – They Gave Us a Tour Sunday Times Report On MEK Camp In Albania
