The Guardian:
Shaun Walker is the Guardian's central and eastern Europe correspondent.
The gates to the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) compound, situated on a gently inclined hillside in rural Albania, are usually firmly closed, guarded by two sculpted lions atop stone pedestals and a large team of Albanian security guards. Unannounced visitors are not welcome at the fenced-off, secretive site, where more than 2,000 MEK members live.
The history of the MEK, or the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, is long and complicated. Critics and many of those who have left the group in recent years describe it as a shadowy outfit with little support inside Iran and many cult-like attributes, condemned to die out at the obscure base in Albania because of its enforced celibacy rules.
But for its backers, which include many politicians and, notably, members of Donald Trump’s inner circle, the MEK are tireless fighters for a free and democratic Iran who could potentially become the country’s next government.
This was highlighted over the weekend when the group held a gathering of international backers attended by, among others, Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. Other visitors included the former Democratic senator Joe Lieberman and the British Conservative MP Matthew Offord.
Giuliani described the MEK as a “government in exile” and suggested it was also a government in waiting after potential regime change in Iran. “It gives us confidence that if we make those efforts to overthrow that horrible regime, sooner rather than later, we will not only save lives but will be able to entrust the transition of Iran to a very responsible group of people,” he said to cheers from the assembled audience.
Giuliani has been a regular visitor to MEK events for several years, as has the US national security adviser, John Bolton. While they have been predicting an MEK government in Tehran for years, the fact that these officials now have positions in the Trump administration, combined with the increasingly fraught geopolitical situation around Iran, makes their support for the MEK matter more than ever.
Originally a Marxist-Islamist group that played a leading role in the 1979 Iranian revolution, the MEK ended up exiled and fighting against the Iranian regime from a base in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. In the process, the MEK lost a lot of support inside Iran.
The group was only removed from the US terror list in 2012 and the Obama administration later helped negotiate its relocation to Albania as the situation in post-Saddam Iraq became perilous. There, in the countryside, it has constructed a vast compound where men and women lead segregated existences.
Last month, the Guardian spoke with about a dozen men in Tirana who had fled the MEK compound over the past two years. With no passports or other documents, they remain in limbo, unable either to work or to leave the country. The picture they painted of life inside the compound was of a cult-like atmosphere in which mobile phones and contact with relatives were banned, all interactions between men and women were prohibited, and days were spent sitting at computers firing out tweets and other online messages in support of the MEK.
Each evening, the men had to gather in small groups with their commanders for “ideological training” as well as a confessional about any sexual thoughts they might have had that day.
“For example, you would have to say: ‘I saw a girl on television and I got an erection,’ or ‘This morning I masturbated,’” said Hassan Heyrani, one of the defectors. He said there was no specific punishment for such admissions except scolding and embarrassment. “If you admit to it too often they will get angry and say: ‘How do you want to create freedom for the Iranian people if you have an erection every day?’”
An investigation by the Intercept recently found that an anti-regime Iranian activist, who had written extensive media columns about Iran, appeared, in fact, to be an invented persona created by MEK trolls.
Go to link
secretive?!?!?
There is nothing secret about the treasonous nature of this cult. They are the farsi speaking ISIS supported by the likes of Bolton, Giuliani and Netanya-WHO
Our politicians had resisted pissing on the office of Presidency, tRump fixed that.
tRump is helping to make Russia great again
Embrace BDS movement and Reject occupation, If the bar code starts with 7 29 put it back on the shelf
Buy American, say NO to Chinese madeTrump
“The time is always right to do what is right” – Martin Luther King
MEK was, is, and will always be a terrorist org. Don't blame Bolton or Pompeo or XYZ for the ineptitude of a bunch of Aabgoosht-Khiyarie Iranians for not having the ability to offer a better and more viable alternative!
So what I am hearing you say, just there is no other group willing to get on the bandwagon of war with the home land and kill Iranians on behalf and benefit of Bolton or Pompeo, it is OK for them to use these cult since there is no other cult.
Why don’t you volunteer?!
Our politicians had resisted pissing on the office of Presidency, tRump fixed that.
tRump is helping to make Russia great again
Embrace BDS movement and Reject occupation, If the bar code starts with 7 29 put it back on the shelf
Buy American, say NO to Chinese madeTrump
“The time is always right to do what is right” – Martin Luther King
On July 11, 2019, Maryam Rajavi, met with Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney. The meeting took place at Ashraf-3 home to the Iranian Resistance in Albania.
Why does there have to be a religious angle to governance in Iran? To ensure people are content? Do people matter? But wait..... MEK embraces the lion & Sun logo for the flag?
You guys don’t even believe what you yourselves are saying. And as a result, for whateverp it’s worth, you have turned yourselves into the greatest propagandists for the MEK, on this site. LOL
"The meeting took place at Ashraf-3 home to the Iranian Resistance in Albania"
Rumors are that Giuliani was negotiating a Golden shower encounter for the President
Our politicians had resisted pissing on the office of Presidency, tRump fixed that.
tRump is helping to make Russia great again
Embrace BDS movement and Reject occupation, If the bar code starts with 7 29 put it back on the shelf
Buy American, say NO to Chinese madeTrump
“The time is always right to do what is right” – Martin Luther King
As for MEK, whether you like it or not, it has proven to be extremely resilient and, over the years, it has been able to gain the support of many politicians worldwide. The decision to delist MEK as an FTO both in Europe and the US was not made overnight. It was a long process. Whereas MEK was put on the list of FTOs by Bill Clinton in 1996 as a favor to the regime in Tehran, the delisting in the US, on the other hand, took place under Obama by then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Whether the racist comment and behavior of tRump or their backing of the terrorist cult of MEK, brings out the otherwise closet racist and supporters out to the open
Our politicians had resisted pissing on the office of Presidency, tRump fixed that.
tRump is helping to make Russia great again
Embrace BDS movement and Reject occupation, If the bar code starts with 7 29 put it back on the shelf
Buy American, say NO to Chinese madeTrump
“The time is always right to do what is right” – Martin Luther King
You’re so upset you can’t even comprehend English, anymore. Obama and Hillary Clinton were the best friends MEK rank and file could wish for. LOL
“Why does there have to be a religious angle to governance in Iran?”Ex_Cop
Last time I checked, the rumor was Evangelicals put Trump in the White House. LOL
I bet you don’t have anything against the Christian Democrats in Europe.
I thought and have been on the record to believe it was stupid policy to give any legitimacy to this treasonous cult by removing them from the terrorist list and I think it is equally or more stupid to give them any legitimacy and support now by the likes of Bolton, Giuliani or Howard Dean and the Zionist/Saudi regime. These f*&kers are politicians and charlatans by profession and set to earn a few easy buck so not a whole lot can be expected from them.
What is sad is the closet supporters that are willing to sell the mother land and Iranians to a cult that have proven to be far worse than the Akhoond and only equal to ISIS. I remember the supporters then and they are showing themselves now and then again.
Our politicians had resisted pissing on the office of Presidency, tRump fixed that.
tRump is helping to make Russia great again
Embrace BDS movement and Reject occupation, If the bar code starts with 7 29 put it back on the shelf
Buy American, say NO to Chinese madeTrump
“The time is always right to do what is right” – Martin Luther King
You see how low you get! What I am telling you here is all from Wikipedia, stupid. I’m here to tell lowlifes like you to check your facts before writing anything. Again, MEK was delisted under Obama by Hillary Clinton who was the Secretary of State, at the time.
Add European “charlatans” to your list above and you get all the major players in the entire world. Do you know what that means? I don’t think you thought very hard while writing your list. I’m telling you you are, in fact, propagating MEK’s cause. But you don’t get it, do you? I can’t even laugh, anymore.
If you got a pay cut, blame it on Trump. I had nothing to do with the sanctions on Iran. I cannot influence Trump’s policies.
The only group of people which can decapitate and dismember every single akhoond is MEK! Give them the resources to kill as many akhoonds as the can possibly do and then bomb them into oblivion!