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Anne Khodabandeh (Singleton), Press TV, July 06 2021:… For three decades the MEK has had to pay for audiences and speakers alike to attend ever more lavish carnival-like rallies to showcase Maryam Rajavi’s ‘leadership’. Year on year under her rule, the MEK has become more and more toxic and indefensible. To the point that now Maryam Rajavi has become persona non grata in exactly those countries she tried to woo. What is the point of Maryam Rajavi
Open Letter to EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson
Anne Khodabandeh (Singleton)
What is the point of Maryam Rajavi
Three decades ago in 1993, Maryam Rajavi was appointed ‘president elect’ of a free Iran as envisioned by her husband Massoud Rajavi. In a once only election, in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, with Maryam as the only candidate, the electorate – members of the Council of the National Council of Resistance (a pseudonym for the Mojahedin e Khalq) – voted for her unanimously. Turnout was 100%. She has ruled over the members ever since without even a whiff of democratic due process.
The point of Maryam Rajavi back then was to create a feminist brand that would win political support in the west among Iran’s enemies. Massoud Rajavi sent her to France to perform this specific task. Of course, putting aside their diverse politics, we have many examples of strong female leadership. In opposition, Marine Le Pen is a tough, capable woman, able to command attention and attract a substantial following, while withstanding harsh criticism. (Maryam Rajavi treats all criticism as an existential threat.) Jacinda Adern has demonstrated that it is possible to have a baby and lead a country. (Maryam Rajavi presided over forced hysterectomies among the female leadership cadre due to her husband’s whim to have sex with them.)
Over three decades Maryam Rajavi has proven incapable of commanding attention or support. The MEK as an entity has certainly been a useful tool for the anti-Iran crowd. But this was not Rajavi’s doing, rather the MEK simply amplified the agenda, narrative and messaging which already existed. The MEK added to the cacophony of noise rather than create or conduct it.
After Being Deported From EU, Maryam Rajavi Threatens Albanians
For three decades the MEK has had to pay for audiences and speakers alike to attend ever more lavish carnival-like rallies to showcase Maryam Rajavi’s ‘leadership’. Year on year under her rule, the MEK has become more and more toxic and indefensible. To the point that now Maryam Rajavi has become persona non grata in exactly those countries she tried to woo. The USA has never allowed her into the country. The UK, allowed her one short visit in 1996. France, under the pressure of a CIA brokered deal (certainly there will be traces of Donald Rumsfeld in this murky deal), was forced to host her and her cult until, in 2018, Rajavi was forced out of the EU and exiled to Albania.
What is the point of Maryam Rajavi
This year, from her headquarters in Albania, Maryam Rajavi will again front this annual event. This time a virtual event due to coronavirus restrictions. One development, however, is that MEK have hired lobbying firm BGR Group in Washington with a $40,000 contract to put on the event. There are several takeaways from this.
The MEK is so reduced and depleted of supporters that it does not have the capacity to organise this itself.
The MEK still has lots of money. Foreign money. (Although the MEK is perennially coy about the source of its funding, the words ‘Saudi Arabia’ and ‘finance’ and ‘MEK’ are frequently used in the same sentence.) BGR Group is promoting a foreign group using foreign money to influence American foreign policy. Well, at least it’s registered.
Maryam Rajavi Corrupt Advocate , Albanian Sali Berisha Under Sanction
The bipartisan speaker list may give the appearance of US support, but these are paid speakers, not affiliates. Not one Iranian will be allowed on the stage with Maryam Rajavi. This is not only due to the fact that no Iranian would be willing to be associated with the blood soaked Rajavi brand. The exclusion of Iranian speakers is down to the impossibility of Rajavi presenting as the head of a political group when she is actually the sole leader of a cult, every one of which’s members exists in a state of modern slavery.
As the theme for her rally, Maryam Rajavi has instructed BGR Group to focus on Iran’s newly elected president Ebrahim Raisi. Not, as the leader of an opposition group, to challenge his present-day policies, but to question his role in events which took place in 1988 at the end of the Iran-Iraq war. Rajavi had three decades to pursue this line of enquiry in her role as ‘president elect’. She didn’t. Perhaps it’s only now that Raisi is the real president of Iran that reality has hit home. That reality is that there is not much point to Maryam Rajavi. She does not lead anyone except her own enslaved followers in Albania. She cannot command respect and attention among even the most virulent of Iran’s enemies and has to pay people to attend and speak at her self-promoting events. We cannot fault BGR Group. It’s what they do. But everyone else who is not being paid by Rajavi is entitled to ask: Really, what’s the point of Maryam Rajavi?
From A Butter Company To Lobbying For Mujahedin-e-Khalq Terrorists
What is the point of Maryam Rajavi
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The Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) Intrusion in Albania, Threatens Regional Stability
Also read:
https://iran-interlink.org/wordpress/the-rajavi-curse/
The Rajavi Curse
Anne Khodabandeh (Singleton), Iran Interlink, June 25 2021:… Rudi Giuliani is the latest in a long list of people who have advocated for Rajavi and the MEK, who have fallen from grace. Giuliani is, of course, the architect of his own downfall. His support for the MEK played only a small part in his long, often unsavoury career. (Sacha Baron Cohen’s 2020 Borat film played successfully on Giuliani’s dodgy reputation.) But Giuliani is in good company when we examine the roll call of individuals who have advocated for the MEK and subsequently lost their careers and their reputations – again often in only small part due to their association with the MEK. The Rajavi Curse
Rudy Giuliani Maryam Rajavi ‘s lobbyist home raided by FBI
The Rajavi Curse
What is the point of Maryam Rajavi
Rudi Giuliani is the latest in a long list of people who have advocated for Rajavi and the MEK, and who have fallen from grace. Giuliani is, of course, the architect of his own downfall. His support for the MEK played only a small part in his long, often unsavoury career. (Sacha Baron Cohen’s 2020 Borat film played successfully on Giuliani’s dodgy reputation.) But Giuliani is in good company when we examine the roll call of individuals who have advocated for the MEK and subsequently lost their careers and their reputations – again often in only small part due to their association with the MEK.
The common theme behind this phenomenon – which should be called the ‘Rajavi Curse’ – is corruption. Recently, the US Secretary of State sanctioned the former Albanian leader Sali Berisha over corruption. Berisha presided over the transfer of MEK from Iraq to Albania after 2013. Once they arrived in Albania, Berisha found a lucrative role in advocating for Maryam Rajavi and the MEK. His downfall reminds us of this ‘Rajavi Curse’.
Let’s be clear, all political persons and groups make alliances; some work out well, some work out badly. It should be well known by now that linking themselves to the Rajavis will always work out badly for everyone. From Robin Corbett (UK MP) who had to write denying he took money from the MEK shortly before his death. To Struan Stevenson, Paulo Casaca and Alejo Vidal-Quadras who abandoned their roles as MEPs after the taint of Maryam Rajavi touched them. Of course, John Bolton, Rudi Giuliani, John McCain and others in the US will be forever known as shills for the terrorist MEK. In Albania, former deputy anti-trafficking coordinator Elona Gjebrea, who fawned upon supreme slave owner Maryam Rajavi, was later linked to a mafia family. Now Sali Berisha is added to the long list of unfortunates touched by the Rajavi Curse. In June, Edi Rama’s government which is notoriously corrupt itself, impeached President Ilir Meta, citing corruption.
The Rajavi Curse
The roll call of the MEK’s backers is a who’s who of people in power who have tried over the years to inflict fatal damage on the Islamic Republic. They found, in the MEK, a group which offered a package of military, ideological and propaganda thrust which matched with their own anti-Iranian agendas. It mattered not a bit that the MEK members themselves are subjected to calamitous human rights abuses and extreme exploitation as modern slaves.
Several have been embroiled in scandals which are linked to their poor judgement like Sir David Amess, who as an MP advocated for Maryam Rajavi in parliament. Or Bob Torricelli and Bob Menendez who have peddled misinformation for, but not exclusively, the MEK. Others, like Dennis Hastert, are just bad characters and their willingness to shill for the MEK (Hastert appeared in MEK rallies in Paris), can be seen in that context.
Whatever their motivation for supporting and advocating for the MEK, these individuals have backed the losing side. A side which has lost because it is itself corrupt to the core. Maryam Rajavi is currently languishing in Albania, as far from Iran and its politics as could be imagined. Expelled from Europe in 2018, Rajavi has suffered nothing but diminishing forces and power. What we are witnessing as we see her advocates fail and fall along the way is not Rajavi’s power to corrupt people. Rather it is simply that it takes a level of corruption, greed and/or confidence trickery to allow a person to support such an unsavoury group. Whether that support is rooted in money, ideology, stupidity or brainwashing, the result is the same: the Rajavi Curse is toxic to all who come close.
The Rajavi Curse
What is the point of Maryam Rajavi
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Maria Ryan Rudy Giuliani and Saudi Paid MEK Terrorists in Albania
Also read:
https://iran-interlink.org/wordpress/mek-israel-derailing-failed-democrats-try-new-tactic/
MEK Israel Derailing Failed – Democrats Try New Tactic
Anne Khodabandeh (Singleton), Iran Interlink, May 09 2021:… On its arrival in Vienna at the start of April, Iran’s delegation was confronted with a small picket of MEK supporters who heckled and threatened violence against them. The MEK demand is to end all negotiations with Iran, scrap the JCPOA and declare war instead. Although the MEK leadership has been expelled from the EU to Albania, it still receives tacit support from within the US embassy there. While the MEK remains a minor irritant to Iran due to its history of treachery and terrorism, US tolerance of what it regards as a terrorist cult signals a lack of sincerity on America’s behalf. MEK Israel Derailing Failed – Democrats Try New Tactic.
When Iranians and Israelis Quarrel
MEK Israel Derailing Failed – Democrats Try New Tactic
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has alleged that negotiators don’t yet know if Tehran is serious about making a deal in Vienna. The US negotiators are talking with Iran’s negotiators on the sidelines of the meetings of the remaining JCPOA signatories. But perhaps the opposite is true. In spite of severe provocation, Iran did not abandon the talks and has kept its baseline proposition – if the US wants to re-join the JCPOA it must credibly lift sanctions and Iran will scale back its nuclear enrichment to agreed levels. Maybe, by focusing heavily on Iran’s compliance without offering a clear commitment to lifting the sanctions, it is the US that is not serious about the talks.
MEK Israel Derailing Failed
Of course, from the start, opponents of the JCPOA agreement tried to derail the talks in Vienna which involved the US on the sidelines. Israel, Saudi Arabia and US neocons have all objected to the nuclear deal in the past. They have been active during the talks to prevent progress. The US has not reacted to this interference.
On its arrival in Vienna at the start of April, Iran’s delegation was confronted with a small picket of MEK supporters who heckled and threatened violence against them. The MEK demand is to end all negotiations with Iran, scrap the JCPOA and declare war instead. Although the MEK leadership has been expelled from the EU to Albania, it still receives tacit support from within the US embassy there. While the MEK remains a minor irritant to Iran due to its history of treachery and terrorism, US tolerance of what it regards as a terrorist cult signals a lack of sincerity on America’s behalf.
On a more serious level, Israel embarked on a course of action which could have provoked Iran into retaliation and withdrawal from the talks. However, despite an attack on Iran’s nuclear plant and its naval presence in the Persian Gulf and beyond, Iran did not abandon the talks as anticipated. The aim of Israel, as with the MEK, has been to drive a wedge between Iran and the US and EU so as to end the talks. This has not worked. The US continues talking with Iran.
However, the US has not condemned the Israeli nuclear attack, nor taken steps to curtail the unwanted activities of the MEK. In this context, it is not clear whether the Americans have had to come up with a different tactic. Rather than relying on external sources of disruption and hindrance to control the terms of talks with Iran, the US is now playing the blame game: Iran is not serious.
The US accusation looks hollow. Allowing the MEK to continue with its false narratives disseminated from the click farm in Albania can only be read by Iran as acting in bad faith. The US cannot control the Israeli reaction. But it can act to stop the MEK activity. A return to the de-radicalisation program instigated by the Obama administration in 2016 would be a good place to start.
Iran Interlink
MEK Israel Derailing Failed – Democrats Try New Tactic
What is the point of Maryam Rajavi
The Rajavi Curse
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Anne Khodabandeh (Singleton) : Explaining Radicalisation for Prevent and Channel
Also read:
https://iran-interlink.org/wordpress/mujahedin-e-khalq-mek-in-vienna/
Mujahedin-e-Khalq MEK In Vienna
Anne Khodabandeh (Singleton), Iran Interlink, April 30 2021:… Iranian papers reported that a small gathering of Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) supporters took up position outside the Grand Hotel which hosts the talks, where they cursed and swore to try to intimidate the Iran delegation. Their demand: an end to diplomacy and for the US to declare war against Iran. Iran’s interpretation to its domestic audience in the run up to the presidential election in June, is that the West is simply playing games using anti-Iranian terrorists, and that this shows that neither America nor Europe is serious about the talks or establishing normal relations with Iran. Mujahedin-e-Khalq MEK In Vienna
US Iran Talks Undermined by MEK Presence
Mujahedin-e-Khalq MEK In Vienna
By Anne Khodabandeh
As the Vienna talks about compliance with the JCPOA continue, participating countries need, of course, to report to their domestic audience via the media what has transpired, what their negotiating position has been and what they got for their efforts.
For President Biden, of course, there is the added burden of laying out the achievements of his first 100 days – failure to re-join the JCPOA as promised being a thorny issue. Iran however has found the perfect go to distraction. Iran – which is heading for presidential elections in June – can easily boost the righteousness of Ayatollah Khamenei’s negotiating red lines by framing the American approach to the talks as grounded in bad faith and bad intent. All it took was to mention that five supporters of the MEK have been in Vienna there to protest.
Mujahedin-e-Khalq MEK In Vienna
Anne Khodabandeh (Singleton)
Iranian papers reported that a small gathering of Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) supporters took up position outside the Grand Hotel which hosts the talks, where they cursed and swore to try to intimidate the Iran delegation. Their demand: an end to diplomacy and for the US to declare war against Iran. Iran’s interpretation to its domestic audience in the run up to the presidential election in June, is that the West is simply playing games using anti-Iranian terrorists, and that this shows that neither America nor Europe is serious about the talks or establishing normal relations with Iran.
In Iran, MEK has become shorthand for ‘the threat to national security from the west’. The negotiators do not need to defend their work. It is enough to denounce the MEK’s unchecked presence in Vienna to demonstrate that the blame lies on the west’s side. It would be foolish to underestimate just how despised the MEK are among Iranians. Every school child on a trip to their local war museum will pass through a section graphically describing the MEK’s deadly collaboration with Saddam Hussein during the eight-year war. The MEK waged a two-decade long terrorist campaign against Iranian civilians that, by its own admission, killed up to 17,000 people. Worse, the MEK continues to act as mercenaries to foreign powers which seek to damage Iranian national interests, including assassination of nuclear scientists, and generals Shirazi and Soleimani. With this history, it is unsurprising that Iran’s leaders find fertile soil to plant anti-west opinion in the population.
To be fair, Europe has tried to curtail MEK activity in recent years, finding it counter to its stated goals of diplomacy with Iran. In 2018 the MEK leader Maryam Rajavi was expelled from Europe on security grounds and set up her new headquarters in Albania. But in Albania support from within the Trump administration allowed the MEK to continue to conduct itself as it has for the past forty years – using intimidation, corruption and propaganda under the protection of the CIA to pursue its anti-Iranian agenda. Not only does this play a major factor in why Albania will not be able to join the EU, the presence of MEK supporters now in Vienna fatally undermines the EU’s position vis-à-vis Iran.
We wrote back in January and again in April that President Biden could score a quick and effective Iran policy win by dismantling the MEK in Albania where the CIA has a free hand. Among the benefits for his administration would be to help stem the flow of foreign funds and false propaganda narratives that continue to hinder and could even destroy America’s opportunity to re-join the JCPOA and position itself to influence future demands on Iran. It would also remove the MEK as a stick with which Iran can beat its opponents – as it has done in this case. Failure to grasp this simple equation is surely based in America’s blindness to its own growing weaknesses and to Iran’s growing military and diplomatic capabilities.
Mujahedin-e-Khalq MEK In Vienna
What is the point of Maryam Rajavi
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Aawa Association (Mardom TV), Novermber 18 2020:… Mr Parsa Sorbi will moderate an online debate on Mardom TV on Friday 20th November (at 11am New York time, at 17pm Germany time, at 19:30pm Teheran time). Part one: In this section, experts talk about the effect of the Trump administration on the fortunes of the MEK in America, Albania and Europe. Part… What is the point of Maryam Rajavi
Iran Interlink, Novmeber 15 2020:… Throughout the U.S. election campaign, the whole of MEK from top to bottom, including Massoud Rajavi from his grave, backed Trump to the hilt claiming that there is no way he would lose. This, of course, was wishful thinking. When they found he had lost, MEK went quiet and didn’t make any statement. This is contrary… What is the point of Maryam Rajavi
Anne Khodabandeh (Singleton), The Iranian, October 20 2020:… From deep inside its rabbit hole in Albania the MEK has created yet another Alice in Wonderland style fairy tale about Iranian spies and agents coming to get them. In doing so, Maryam Rajavi reminds us exactly why the European Union expelled her and her lieutenants from Europe and sent her into exile in Albania. The MEK presence… What is the point of Maryam Rajavi
Anne Khodabandeh (Singleton), Iran Interlink, September 20 2020:… Instead of putting the lives of her followers at the forefront of her concerns, MEK leader Maryam Rajavi gleefully claimed these newly dead as “martyrs” and heaped praise on them simply for dying. Two things are significant in this callous declaration. First, the cause of death was missing, unlike all previously announced… What is the point of Maryam Rajavi
Anne Khodabandeh, Iranian.com, July 17 2020:… MEK leader Maryam Rajavi boasts that she can organize a Zoom conference from Albania on July 17th to link up paid pundits she would normally invite to her annual rally – a cut price event. On July 16th families from every province in Iran linked up by Zoom to talk and asked ‘if Rajavi… What is the point of Maryam Rajavi
Anne Khodabandeh, Iranian.com, May 12 2020:… A petition addressed to Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama has reached over ten thousand signatures. The petition was created by estranged families who need help to contact their loved ones trapped in the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) cult’s closed camp ‘Ashraf 3’ in Albania. The families are demanding that PM Rama ensures they get this contact. Now… What is the point of Maryam Rajavi
Olsi Jazexhi, Anne Khodabandeh, May 04 2020:… Dr. Olsi Jazexhi discusses with Anne Khodabandeh a petition that an Iranian NGO, Nejat Society has sent to the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama. This petition which is being signed by thousands of persons in Iran and in the world asks the Albanian government to issue visas for Iranian families who want… What is the point of Maryam Rajavi
Tehran Times, April 26 2020:… U.S. President Donald Trump has shared an appreciative tweet for his anti-Iran policies by a fake account belonging to the terrorist group of Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK). The tweet, posted by Heshmat Alavi on Wednesday, read: “The mullahs’ regime ruling #Iran harasses UN Navy ships for propaganda purposes.” “Thank you, President Trump, for reminding this regime that… What is the point of Maryam Rajavi
Ali Harb, Middle East Eye, April 25 2020:… The US president’s post was celebrated by an MEK-linked account. Trump retweeted that response, taking a dig at the presumptive Democratic nominee, former vice president Joe Biden. “The mullahs’ regime ruling Iran harasses UN [sic] Navy ships for propaganda purposes,” Heshmat Alavi, a popular MEK-linked Twitter account, responded to Trump’s post. “Thank… What is the point of Maryam Rajavi
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… What is the point of Maryam Rajavi
Iran Interlink, March 08 2020:… For the last two weeks the MEK has been working hard on damage limitation over the New York Times article. Those answering back against the MEK point out that all the MEK’s attacks are against the reporter. The only thing MEK says is that ‘because the NYT published this, the regime will come and kill… What is the point of Maryam Rajavi
Anne Khodabandeh (Singleton) , Iranian.com, March 01 2020:… From its first arrival in Albania in 2013, the MEK continued its antagonistic anti-Iran political activities. In 2017, the Trump administration overturned plans to de-radicalize the MEK members. Instead, the MEK built an extra-territorial garrison to house the enslaved members so they wouldn’t escape. Emboldened, the MEK was able to coerce the… What is the point of Maryam Rajavi
