Thursday, September 27, 2018

  • Home
  • News
  • Iranian Resistance Calls For European Action Against Regime

The president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), Maryam Rajavi, called on European leaders to cut off the financial lifeline to the Islamic Republic of Iran in order to further put pressure on the regime for its eventual downfall.
The call for action came Saturday during a video broadcast to the 2018 Iran Uprising Summit held in New York. More than 1,700 supporters of the NCRI and the People’s Mujahadeen of Iran (PMOI/MEK) gathered to hear information on the status of the uprisings across their home country and to share ideas on how to push for a new, democratic Iranian republic.



The gathering was headlined by Rudy Giuliani, attorney for President Trump, as well as other dignitaries.
Ms. Rajavi described recent horrific, desperate actions by the regime as she requested European and American support for the cause, “In committing these crimes, the mullahs are testing Western governments. In such circumstances, a lack of resolve or a passive attitude by Western governments will intensify the regime’s terrorist actions.”



She called for Western governments to shut down Iranian embassies due to the use of diplomats to organize and carry out terrorists attacks, such as the attempted bombing of the Free Iran Gathering 2018 which was held in Paris in June of this year.
When discussing the international community’s response to recent acts of terror by the regime, Ms. Rajavi added, “With regard to the United Nation’s Security Council’s decision to discuss Iran, among other issues, during its September 26th session, I must recall the demands of the Iranian Resistance underscored many years ago. It is an urgent imperative that the Security Council address the flagrant violations of human rights in Iran, especially the torture and massacre of political prisoners, and the regime’s export of terrorism and warmongering in the Middle East region. It must adopt binding measures to compel the regime to halt its crimes.”






“The financial lifelines which fund the regime’s Supreme Leader and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps must be blocked. This is what the Iranian people demand, and it is indispensible to regional and global peace and security.”

In addition to Mr. Giuliani, speeches were given by Gen. James Jones, former U.S. National Security Advisor under President Obama, the Hon. Bernard Kouchner, former French foreign minister, the Hon. Giulio Terzi, former Italian foreign minister, and the Hon. Michael Mukasey, former U.S. attorney general.

The event began with a heartfelt tribute to the late Sen. John McCain, who was a staunch supporter of the MEK during its difficult times in Iraq, where many were killed by pro-Iranian forces in the region, and the Iraqi government.


by pro-Iranian forces in the region, and the Iraqi government.

Gen. Jones commented that Iran should never be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons. He called for the support of the Gulf community to push Iran and its militias out of Syria, to reinvigorate the Middle East peace process, and support the Iranian people in their desire for freedom.


Mr. Giuliani told of McCain’s admission that he would not live to see a free Iran, but hoped that Mr. Giuliani would take his place when Tehran was liberated. Mr. Giuliani also remarked that Iran constantly tries to discredit and diminish the capabilities of the MEK, but asked when speaking to the audience, “If you are so weak and ineffective, why are they constantly trying to kill you?”





Also in attendance were many members of the Iranian diaspora from around the country and the world. One of the most pleasant parts of the afternoon was the live playing of Iranian folk music by two teenage siblings who had traveled across America to attend. The 15-year-old girl told the audience, “I have never been to Iran, where my parents met. But one day I will visit a free Iran.”



Friday, September 21, 2018

A closer look at the Iranian regime’s increased terrorist activities

A closer look at the Iranian regime’s increased terrorist activities
The Iranian regime used its official embassies in Europe to plot a terrorist attack on the MEK meeting

Adapted from El-Bashayer Online – written by Abdul Rahman Mahabadi (Professional writer and Iran analyst)

Sept. 20, 2018 - In its 40-year history, the terrorist and fundamentalist regime of Iran has done everything within its power to terrorize and destroy its dissidents and opponents. 
The regime has been engaging in terrorism across the world in different ways. 
This is a reality that parliamentarians and politicians have confirmed in the past years, and they have recognized the Iranian regime as the biggest state sponsor of globalterrorism.



At the turn of the year, when protests erupted across Iran, the Iranian regime increased its efforts to strike at the Iranian opposition in hopes of stifling the uprisings. Following the remarks of the Iranian regime’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, in which he emphasized the role of the PMOI/MEK in the uprisings, the Iranian regime engaged in several terrorist attempts. 

At the doorsteps of the Iranian new year in March, the Iranian regime dispatched a group of terrorist to Albania to detonate bombs at the annual gathering of the MEK. Again, in June, another team of Iranian regime terrorists tried to bomb a large Iranian opposition rally in Paris. Shortly after, a similar attempt was discovered in the U.S. If any of these terrorist attempts succeeded, it would have caused a disaster.


What’s significant about these terror attempts is the haste in which the Iranian regime has tried to carry out its plots, to the extent that it has overlooked all the sensibilities that surround its own present circumstances. The Iranian regime even overtly employed its embassies and diplomats in implementing its plans. The disclosures made by the Iranian opposition and the arrest of Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi in Germany and the other members of its terrorist network in Albania, France, Belgium, and the U.S. have become a diplomatic disgrace for the regime of Tehran.

Iranian regime officials are resorting to such measures while they are under international scrutiny. They are shamelessly carrying out terrorism through their embassies, which can only be described as a stupid move. While the world is rallying against terrorism, resorting to terrorist measures further arouses international anger at the regime. This is especially bad for Tehran because after the U.S. exited the Iran deal, the regime has become increasingly in need of support from European countries.

The regime’s hasty terrorist measures and its increase of domestic suppression and executions only hint at its desperate state in its final days.
On September 8, the Iranian regime executed three Kurdish political prisoners. At the same time, the regime attacked the headquarters of Kurdish opposition groups in Iraq, killing and injuring dozens of people. There is evidence indicating that the attack was staged from inside Iraq, through a missile base in Sulaymaniyah. 
If the allegations are proved to be true, it means that the Iranian regime has entered a dangerous game in the region.

History has seen many dictatorships, but the mullahs’ regime of Iran is unique in its own right, especially in terms of shamelessness. The officials of the Iranian regime describe Iran as “the most democratic country in the world” and claim that “there are no political prisoners in Iran.” They also claim that Iran is the most secure country in the world. What they don’t say is that the Iranian regime is the record-holder of executions in the world and it is the biggest state-sponsor of terrorism.

Another aspect of the Iranian regime’s shamelessness is it cyber-terrorism. Recently, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Google shut down several online accounts linked to the Iranian regime because of their role in undermining public discourse and spreading propaganda. 
The Iranian regime’s huge cyber-terrorism machine is being run by the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), employing thousands of IRGC agents and hackers and spending millions of dollars out of the pockets of the impoverished Iranian people to spread misleading news and lies about the Iranian opposition.

What is evident is that execution, terror, missile attacks and other hollow muscle-flexing moves are being decided at the highest levels of power in the regime. But it won’t help the regime out of it current predicament. The Iranian people are determined to continue their uprisings, and the Iranian community is more vigilant than ever. The regime’s efforts are only further proving that the PMOI/MEK and the NCRI are the main Iranian opposition movements and the real alternatives to the mullahs’ rule.

We’re also witnessing that the international community is becoming increasingly aware of the need to stand against the terrorist regime that rules in Iran and to protect the Iranian opposition. It wouldn’t be surprising to see the Iranian regime’s embassies shut down soon and the NCRI recognized as the real representative of the Iranian people.

Thursday, September 20, 2018

Meet the MEK: Iranian freedom fighters working to effect regime change

In this Friday, Sept. 7, 2018 file photo, protesters burn an Iranian flag after storming and burning the Iranian consulate building in Basra, Iraq. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani, File) **FILE** more >


By L. Todd Wood - - Wednesday, September 19, 2018

ANALYSIS/OPINION:
On a recent business trip to Albania, I was invited to visit the new camp of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, or the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), still being built about 45 minutes outside of Tirana, on the way to the Albanian coast. I accepted the invitation, although I must admit, I had no idea what to expect upon reaching the sprawling facility which is the new home for approximately 3,200 of the Iranian resistance movement’s personnel, after being forced out of Iraq by violence from the Iranian-backedgovernment.

I want to write more about the group and its agenda in the near future, but today I just want to explore what I found at ‘Ashraf 3’, which is the name the MEK has given the new camp, after the first Ashraf on the Iraqi border, where the group launched raids into Iran almost two decades ago.

With the Trump administration pulling out of the so-called Iran deal, the MEK has been given new hope in its push for regime change in the Islamic Republic of Iran. With the new sanctions biting, in combination with the consequences of the corrupt regime’s incompetent management, civil unrest is rampant across the country. The MEK sees a real chance to force regime change from inside Iran, without needing the use of expensive and already overextended American military force.


With the eventual fall of the mullahs, the MEK wants to finally install a democracy. It was against this backdrop that I visited Ashraf 3 in Albania.



The camp has been quite controversial, primarily due to the regime’s view of the MEK as an existential threat. This has caused the mullahs to act out in reckless ways to counter what it sees as its real opposition, even if it is all the way in Albania. This has resulted in a foiled bomb attempt at the Free Iran Gathering 2018 in Paris last June, where an Iranian diplomat was arrested, and the recent arrest and indictment of two Iranian spies in Washington, D.C., looking to target resistance officials in the United States.
Iranian intelligence agents have been active in Albania, recruiting former MEK members for propaganda purposes and attempting to stain the reputation of the group within the eyes of Albania’s people.


The car picked me up at the hotel in Tirana and we made the 45-minute drive out to the camp. The conversation was pleasant enough and we even stopped for some local fruit along the way. But security was very tight. I noticed that there were two cars always together whenever we left the camp over the two-day visit.

A local security firm was guarding the location, with perimeter defense and car inspections as you entered the gates, where the two MEK lion mascots guard the entrance.

The camp is very large, and in various phases of construction. The group has done remarkably well in such a short period of time to recreate what they had left in Iraq. There is everything you would expect in a small city — lodging, food service, assembly halls, administrative buildings.

In a short amount of time I was introduced to the leadership of the group in Albania and we sat around a table in one of the new buildings to get acquainted. What struck me initially was the openness that I encountered. Multiple attempts at journalistic hit pieces had culminated in a recent drone flyover by an adversarial news group from the UK, most likely funded by someone who doesn’t want the MEK to be successful in its quest.

As the members of the camp knew that I had promised to keep an open mind, I was met most graciously. I asked many questions during my two-day visit. All of the questions were answered in-depth, sometimes with other members being brought in to give a more detailed and complete answer. I was not prevented from seeing or requesting anything. I asked about life at the camp, those who had left the movement, even about the MEK’s alleged involvement in the Iranian Hostage Crisis decades before. All questions were met with complete answers.

In fact, I was given a tour of the camp. The facilities are very functional, if not somewhat barren. With the MEK children having been brought out of Iraq to Europe and America in the last decade, the remaining adult members are all mostly older, although I did meet scores of a new generation of MEK, male and female, some of whom were in the group of children who were evacuated from Iraq in 2009, only to join the MEK later in life. Many signed up in their relatives’ footsteps, to keep alive their struggle against the regime.

With the tour I was exposed to the robust cooking capabilities that have been built. I toured the medical facility which has a good amount of equipment and staff, trying to their best with limited resources. Many patients were in various phases of medical treatment as I walked from room to room.
In addition to being exposed to many of the day-to-day locations members would frequent, I also had the chance to talk and interview probably 50 members from all walks of life within the movement. Some of the older, original members were provided, as well as the youngest. They all had their own unique story of what led them to join. Many had violence perpetrated on their loved ones by the regime. Many had family members executed. Many had simply given up hope of a decent life in Iran and now had committed themselves to bringing regime change for future generations.

Many pundits have described the MEK as a cult. I would describe it as a fanatically committed group of individuals who have given their lives for an idea: a free Iran. Each and every one of them spoke about their people, and how they wanted a better life for the Iranian population. This was especially prevalent among the young men and women I met, many who had scars and wounds from the violence at Ashraf, or even within Iran itself. Many had a deep sense of loss and pain from their dealings with the regime-murder, assault, deceit, torture. Their overriding principle was to prevent future generations of Iran from having to go through the same horrific experiences.

The ideal of freedom is a powerful one and permeated throughout Ashraf 3. It is utmost on everyone’s mind. It is something bigger than themselves. Most of the people I met were highly intellectual and successful in their previous lives. They could have been living anywhere in the West, but they chose, at a personal sacrifice, to join this movement. The younger members know nothing but the regime and are hellbent on destroying it. I saw a remarkable level of focus and determination. All of the members of the group had a job to do and were singularly focused on its completion.
Each person I spoke with knew exactly why and for what he or she was fighting for and why they had given up so much of their own lives to fight the regime.

Albania has nothing to fear from this group. I did not see any weapons or military training. They want to become good citizens of Albania and to build a life in the former communist country. In fact, it is the MEK who has to be worried about violence. The regime has shown it will stop at nothing to destroy them. Iranian Ministry of Intelligence agents are active in Albania. They are the ones the Albanian public has to fear, not the people in the camp.
There has been much disinformation purposefully spread about the PMOI/MEK. I hope to confront most of it by writing from personal experience from my interactions with the Iranian resistance. This is the first of many reports on the subject.


Saturday, September 15, 2018

#FreeIran2018 #IranRegimeChange #Iran #MEK #Iran #IranProtests #IStandWithMaryamRajavi ready: Congratulations on the 53rd anniversary of founding the MEK. Resi...

MEK Support Outside of Iran



By Pooya Stone
The Iranian Government often likes to portray the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) as highly unpopular inside and outside of Iran, which is an outright lie.

We’ve already covered various topics, including the current Iranian uprising and MEK TV, which show how much support the MEK has within Iran, so this time we will be focusing on how the MEK actually enjoys wide support from politicians and activists in the international community.

The MEK is supported by many people across the world, from monarchs to politicians to human rights activists to military heroes to intelligence directors to Noble Prize winners, with hundreds of thousands of people publically pledging their support for the MEK. This support shows that the MEK is widely recognised by the world as Iran’s government-in-exile, making it far from “insignificant”, and shows that there is great support for change in Iran.


WE CAN SEE THE WORLD’S SUPPORT FOR THE MEK IN MANY WAYS, INCLUDING:

• France allows the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) - a coalition of dissident, democratic groups, including the MEK - to conduct its business, as a government-in-exile, inside France


• Albania is currently sheltering 3,000 MEK refugees, who were under attack from the Government, in Camp Liberty in Iraq

• he US defended the MEK from attack in Camp Liberty and Camp Ashraf in Iraq

• The UN declared the MEK in Iraq to be protected persons and should be protected from harm
Of course, one of the most important ways to judge MEK support from the international community, is at the Free Iran Grand Gathering, which is held in Paris each summer, and attended by over 100,000 people.

THE FREE IRAN GATHERING

This annual event marks the anniversary of a 1981 MEK demonstration in Tehran, where half a million people protested the mullahs’ rule. Every year, it draws more and more people to express solidarity with the MEK, including many prominent dignitaries from around the world.

The 2018 event was held last weekend, so let’s take a look at some of the biggest names who spoke in favour of the MEK at the Free Iran Gathering.

• Jean-Francois Legaret, Mayor of the 1st district of Paris
• Jérard Deprez, MEP
• Rudy Giuliani, former Mayor of New York City
• Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the US House of Representatives
• Bill Richardson, former Governor of New Mexico
• Bernard Kouchner, former Foreign Minister of France
• Philippe Douste-Blazy, former Foreign Minister of France
• General George Casey, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army (2007 to 2011)
• Louis Freeh, former Director of the FBI
• Ingrid Betancourt, former Colombian Senator and presidential candidate
• Frances Townsend, former assistant to the US President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism
• Pandeli Majko, former Albanian Prime Minister
• Rama Yade, former French Minister of Human Rights
• Ranjana Kumari, Equality movement activist from India
• Maria Candida Almeida, Deputy Attorney General and former Attorney General of Portugal
• Eduard Lintner, former German deputy Interior Minister
• Michael Mukasey, former US Attorney General
• John Baird, former Foreign Minister of Canada
• Stephen Harper, former Prime Minister of Canada
• Sir David Amess, British MP
• Giulio Terzi, former Foreign Minister of Italy

That right there is a veritable who’s who of the best and the brightest leaders in the world and they support the MEK, but they are far from the only people. Indeed, many people in the US Cabinet support the MEK and the belief is that they will encourage Donald Trump to recognise MEK leader Maryam Rajavi as the true president of the Iranian people and advocate a policy of regime change in Iran.