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.
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