The recent broadcast by the BBC about the MEK and its subsequent censored release for Iranian state media has been met with outrage and a fair amount of exhaustion by the Iranian diaspora and their allies. The hit piece is simply a rehash of old MOIS propaganda that has been repeatedly disproven.

British MP Lord Clarke of Hampstead shares his frustration and expressed his concern with the report and the BBC’s decision to release a second, censored version in an open letter to the BBC. The following is an abridged version of his letter.

 

MEK supporters around the world are reacting to the recent false BBC reports about the MEK with anger on social media. People on Twitter used the hashtag #AyatollahBBC to express their displeasure with the BBC’s biased reporting on the MEK.

The hashtag had more than 20,000 tweets in a two-hour period on Wednesday night and quickly began to trend worldwide. As of Thursday, Twitter monitoring records show that the hashtag has been shown to Twitter users more than 20 million times.

The Original Report

The BBC attracted the ire of the Iranian diaspora on November 7, 2019, when it aired a report on the MEK that rehashed old regime propaganda. The sources used in the report were MOIS operatives claiming to be “former MEK members,” a regime tactic that has been repeatedly exposed.

#BBC showed up as a mouthpiece of the barbarian mullahs against #MEKhttps://t.co/iU0KKXEloT#StopYellowJournalism #FakeNews #Iran #MEK
@BBCWorld @LPressly @Ofcom @BBCPersian pic.twitter.com/gPor5xDOGe

— MEK Iran (Mujahedin-e Khalq) (@MEK_Iran) November 14, 2019

The report focused on MEK members living at Ashraf-3, the MEK’s new headquarters in Albania, which has been the target of attempted terrorist plots by the Iranian regime and vicious smear campaigns attempting to discredit the organization and lay the groundwork for future attacks.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran’s (NCRI) Security and Counter-Terrorism Committee released a statement on the day the report was broadcast clarifying the allegations made in the report and noting the attempts made by the Iranian regime to discredit the MEK using “former MEK members.”

The Censored Report

Four days later, on November 11th, the BBC’s English and Persian websites posted a censored version of the broadcast to appeal to the Iranian regime’s media outlets and Friday prayer leaders. The censored version of the broadcast was less than half the runtime of the original and excluded any positive mentions of the MEK. The BBC’s accommodation of the Iranian regime’s propaganda machine clearly showed the lengths to which the outlet had chosen to go to serve the clerical regime, even as the religious tyranny is faltering under the weight of Iranian people’s resistance, tightening economic sanctions, regional developments, and increasing international isolation.

Later that day, BBC Persian TV invited the “former MEK members” to come on air and repeat their allegations about the MEK once more on television.

Origin of Ayatollah BBC

The phrase “Ayatollah BBC” was coined after the 1988 Massacre when the BBC Persian reporter

Sadeq Saba went into Iranian prisons to interview prisoners. Saba broke the journalist’s ethical code and interviewed prisoners who had been tortured to the point of submission and gave false information out of fear for their lives. The Iranian regime used these interviews to whitewash the crimes that took place inside its prisons, to delegitimize the MEK, and to justify their continued repression of MEK activists.

The #Iranian regime has responded to the continued uprisings in Iraq and Lebanon through #BBC's #FakeNews gainst #MEKhttps://t.co/A3uFkpMmBM#Iran #FakeNewsMedia @USAdarFarsi pic.twitter.com/sI5zZtsRqe

— MEK Iran (Mujahedin-e Khalq) (@MEK_Iran) November 13, 2019

30,000 political prisoners were executed during a single summer during the 1988 Massacre, most of whom were MEK members. Many of them were tortured before they were shot or hanged and then buried in mass, unmarked graves. To date, none of the perpetrators have ever faced justice for their roles in this crime against humanity.

BBC Persian has never apologized for the role it played in assisting the Iranian regime in oppressing its people, not has it acknowledged its role in helping the perpetrators of the 1988 Massacre evade justice.

The BBC published a lie-filled report about the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK) based solely on the statements of two Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) agents, even though the MEK had spoken with the BBC journalists for five-and-a-half hours at their Albanian headquarters of Ashraf 3, which brings the whole notion of balance and accuracy into question.

The piece was so bias that Shahin Gobadi, Press Spokesman of the MEK, had to ask what the Regime offered the BBC to secure this “inexplicable and vulgar hit-piece” against the MEK.

#BBC Iranian Regime Propaganda Demonizing the #MEK https://t.co/HMSXmEuN0a#Iran #FreeIran @USAdarFarsi #FakeNews #FakeNewsMedia

— MEK Iran (Mujahedin-e Khalq) (@MEK_Iran) November 13, 2019

Gobadi wrote a response to the BBC report where he said that the only explanation for the libelous anti-MEK website article is that the previous slanderous anti-MEK radio program didn’t please the mullahs enough.

He wrote that the BBC was wrong to claim that the MEK didn’t want to speak with the BBC, when their only reservations were about taking part in a hit-piece scripted by the MOIS who have previously plotted terror attacks against the MEK in Albania, France, and Iraq, even providing documents to prove this.

In fact, the BBC need not even take the MEK’s word for it. They could instead listen to the Albanian Police, who revealed details of the regime’s plots against the MEK in Albania less than three weeks before this article was published. They could also take the word of the French, German, and Belgian police forces, several UN officials, and many politicians across the world.

No wonder people in #Iran call #BBC as Ayatollah BBC
It has always been a partner to mullahs for running demonizing campaign against #MEK, #FakeNews #FakeNewsMedia @USAdarFarsi https://t.co/gLETU8OlNR

— MEK Iran (Mujahedin-e Khalq) (@MEK_Iran) November 12, 2019

So who are these MOIS agents? Gobadi explains that Gholam-Ali Mirzai, a prisoner-of-war captured by the MEK after attacking them, was released and offered a safe haven by the MEK, should he not want to return to Iran. He was even sent to Albania by the MEK but was asked to leave.

He lied when he said that he was not told about his family’s visit to Iraq when he resided in the MEK camp there. After all, the camp was accessible to everyone and, at the time, the representatives of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), and the US military were present at the camp and would certainly have intervened.

The journalist even admits in the article that Mirzai visited the Iranian Embassy in Tirana and quoted a diplomat as saying that “some of the ‘disassociates’ are certainly working for Iran”.

While the other informant, Hassan Heyrani, admitted in his own handwriting that he’d been expelled from the MEK over “intelligence, security concerns, and his treason”, for which he had apologized; a document that is publically available and could have been accessed by the reporter.

Gobadi wrote: “These bogus narratives pursue only one objective: Mollifying the criminals ruling Iran at the expense of [the MEK] who have dedicated their lives to democracy and freedom in Iran, and more than 100,000 of whom have been executed by the ruling mullahs, including 30,000 massacred in 1988.”

The Iranian Regime is facing multiple crises domestically and internationally, so it feels the need to hit back at the MEK, which is the democratic opposition movement capable of overthrowing them in favor of a Free Iran. But why does the BBC feel the need to defend the mullahs?

Gobadi wrote: “Perhaps, from the perspective of the Iranian regime’s western appeasers and benefactors [the] only “crime” of MEK [is] their singular focus on, and unflinching dedication to, one sacred mission: liberating Iran from the yoke of the monsters who wear the turban and the robe and exploit religion to justify their savagery, unmatched by any dictatorial regime since the Second World War.”

Helping mullahs to escape the deadly crisis they are facing these days, once again BBC showed up as a mouthpiece of the religious fascist regime ruling Iran. In an article on 11 November 2019, BBC tried to echo the four-decade false allegations against the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK).

• While uprisings in Iraq and Lebanon continues and the “strategic depth” of mullahs are undermined in these two countries,
• While international sanctions, particularly, against Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of the Iranian regime, and his inner circle, is intensified,
• While the Iranian people’s protests intensify,
• And while the MEK resistance units’ activities are growing

In a frustrated effort to tarnish MEK’s portrait and making it appears as though there is no alternative to the Iranian regime and that the West is better served by continuing the policy of appeasement, the mullahs have stepped up their demonizing campaign against the Iranian resistance and the MEK.

Again, the BBC on behalf of the mullahs’ Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), tried to run a demonizing campaign under the disgraced banner of “former MEK members”.

The mudslinging by the current functionaries of MOIS, disguising themselves as MEK’s “former members,” have repeatedly been exposed by irrefutable documents and evidence, and condemned, as was the case in a German court’s ruling against Der Spiegel for regurgitating similar smears.

It is worth mentioning that, the Albanian Police exposed the details of the Iranian regime’s terrorist plots against the MEK members in Albania through the services of “former members”, on October 23, 2019.

What Explains Latest #BBC's Anti-#MEK Tirade in the Service of #Iran Mullahshttps://t.co/miqrDeG8DA#FakeNews #BlackListMOIS pic.twitter.com/B0MyH4HCsf

— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) November 12, 2019

The BBC has tried to portrait the MEK as a cult, as the MOIS has tried it for the past four decades. Last summer, some 350 dignitaries from 47 countries spent five days at Ashraf-3, the home of MEK members in Albania, and saw everything up close and personal. So, there is no need to add anything but noting the remarks of the Former Mayor of New York City and the US President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani when he referred the MEK members saying: “These are people who are dedicated to freedom”

He added: “And if you think that’s a cult, then there’s something wrong with you,”

It was not just Mayor Giuliani, dozens of political dignitaries from different political diversities have repeatedly argued the tag of “cult” in the past forty years.

Parroting the propaganda of the notorious Intelligence service of a barbarian regime, of course, is not an honor for BBC; however, the Iranian regime’s critical situation has compelled BBC to lend a hand to the mullahs.

@HanifJazayeri This is not a surprise. It has become endemic. BBC did exactly the same thing in 2003, 2006, and 2011. They have a habit of rushing to the aid of the mullahs when they are on the ropes and when the Resistance is on the ascent. @iran_policy https://t.co/lytU6NJ8S0

— Ali Safavi (@amsafavi) November 11, 2019

These efforts against the MEK are in vain, however, the growing popularity of the MEK and the uprising against the Iranian regime in Iraq and Lebanon, is the best reply to the demonizing campaign against the MEK by both the mullahs and the BBC.

The BBC Radio 4 and the World Service broadcasted a bias and unsubstantiated report about the Iranian resistance and the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI-MEK).

The report is based on the accounts and interviews of the so-called “former members of MEK”. It is well known that for many years the Iranian regime has been pursuing its demonizing campaign and terrorist activities against the MEK through so-called “former members”

“The mudslinging by the current functionaries of the mullahs’ Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), disguising themselves as PMOI’s “former members,” have repeatedly been exposed by irrefutable documents and evidence, and condemned, as was the case in a German court’s ruling against Der Spiegel for regurgitating similar smears. The repetitive scheme by the MOIS to tarnish the image of the PMOI in Albania is intended to set the stage for more terrorist acts against the Iranian Resistance,” The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), Security and Counter-terrorism Committee’s (NCRICT) statement reads. 

The main purpose of the demonization campaign of the Iranian regime against its main opposition is to pursue terrorist plots against them. “On October 23, 2019, the Albanian Police exposed the details of the clerical regime’s terrorist plots against the PMOI members in Albania through the services of “former members.” In her report, however, the BBC journalist makes no reference to this development, the most important news in Albania regarding the PMOI in recent weeks and months, because she attempts to balance her story with comments from the Iranian regime’s operatives. Last year, Albania expelled the Iranian regime’s ambassador and the MOIS station chief in Tirana for espionage and terrorist activities.” NCRICT statement reads. 

The report also portrays if the Iranian resistance and MEK members are kept in a remote area in an autocracy country and no outsider has any access to them, while they are in Europe and hundreds of international dignitaries visit their home, and the same reporter was there for over 5 hours and was offered to stay there as long as she wanted, privately talk to anyone and visit anywhere she so desired.

“Last summer, some 350 dignitaries from 47 countries spent five days at Ashraf-3, the home of PMOI members in Albania, and saw everything up close and personal. Thus, the absurdities rehashed by the BBC, such as brainwashing, lack of access to the Internet, the denial of freedom of choice to PMOI members, and the defection of 300 or 400 members from the organization in Albania are utterly false and designed to mollify the criminal mullahs ruling Iran,”

“In her report, the BBC’s Linda Pressly says that the PMOI refused to be interviewed for her program. She has deliberately chosen not to report that she and another BBC colleague were the guests of the PMOI at their home, Ashraf-3, for five-and-a-half hours. During the meeting, the PMOI representatives told her that she could stay at Ashraf-3 as long as she wanted, privately talk to anyone and visit anywhere she so desired. The PMOI representatives also told her not to expect the PMOI to be part of a program that was wittingly or unwittingly based on an MOIS script. They also told her that they should not be expected to be part of a program that also included individuals whose objective and mission is collecting intelligence and assisting the Iranian regime to conduct terrorist operations against the PMOI. No one would have criticized German, British, French, and American freedom fighters and patriots for refusing to appear alongside Nazi collaborators.” NCRICT statement reads. 

It is shameful that BBC by its fake news is helping the Iranian regime to turn a security threat into political dissidents, and demonize them in a well-known method of the Iranian regime. No wonder why Iranian people call BBC as Ayatollah BBC, but the question is why they are doing this now, and why the regime needs this propaganda and fake news at this moment.

“The continuing uprisings in Iraq and Lebanon have undermined the strategic depth and one of the strategic pillars of the ruling theocracy ruling Iran. Intensifying international sanctions, in particular against the regime’s supreme leader and his inner circle, coupled with the rise in the Iranian people’s protests and the Resistance Units’ activities not only highlight the reality that time is rapidly running out on the religious fascism ruling Iran, but also pose an unprecedented challenge to its survival.

Under such circumstances, the mullahs have stepped up their terrorist activities and stepped up their campaign of demonization against the Iranian Resistance and the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) in order to make it appears as though that there is no alternative to their regime and that the West is better served by continuing the policy of appeasement. The religious dictatorship’s desperation cloaked under the disgraced banner of “former PMOI members,” this time through Radio BBC 4 and the World Service, represents one such effort. “

The Iranian regime, boxed into a corner, the uprisings against the mullahs’ interference in Iraq and Lebanon, and unable to stop a rising tide of protests by the Iranian Resistance at home and abroad, have resorted to using fake social media profiles to share false news in order to boost its forces morale.

Websites affiliated with the regime’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and its operatives have posted several pieces citing a fake Twitter account attributed to the French president’s Secretary-General Alexis Kohler, which said that the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK) will soon be expelled from France.

The Elysée Palace denied the report and said that this was not the position of Elysée, adding that Kohler does not have a Twitter account.

On November 4, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)’s Committee on Security and Counterterrorism issued a statement to underscore that these tweets bore the clear markings of the Iranian regime.

Cyber Scandal by #Iran’s Regime and IRGC Rumor About Illusionary Trip of Mrs. Rajavi https://t.co/H3jvnCggtF

— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) July 25, 2019

The account was created in February 2014, but no tweets were published until three months ago. There have been 46 tweets posted on the account since; 40 of which were copy-pasted public material and six, all posted on October 30th, are purely anti-PMOI/MEK nonsense that sounds similar to that coming out of the regime’s propaganda machine. Weirder still, all six tweets were posted simultaneously at 4:06 am Paris time and none of the information contained within appears on any other known French Government websites or media outlets.

How likely is it that Kohler set up a Twitter account five years ago, only started using it in August, and then posted six tweets in a minute bashing a pro-democracy group that has lived peacefully in France for nearly 40 years? Very unlikely.

How likely it is that this is the work of the Iranian regime’s cyber army rather than the French Presidency? Incredibly. This is one of their top tactics. Create the account and leave it dormant until they need to make the changes.

But because the Western media and other social media platforms recognized that this account was fake, the MOIS websites tried to resurrect it after six days.

This is not even the first time the regime has tried this in 2019. In July, they published a fake report claiming that Pierre Cochard, “a French diplomat resident in Israel”, had written a series of tweets about NCRI President Maryam Rajavi visiting Israel to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the head of Mossad. The French Foreign Ministry said that Cochard was not behind the Twitter account.

 

NBC News recently published an article that smeared Iranian Resistance movement, Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK), which is the leading anti-fascism movement in the Middle East and has fought two dictatorships over the past 55 years.

In the October 17 article, NBC News failed to note that some 120,000 MEK members and sympathizers have been executed by the Regime since 1979; instead, it appears the writer was deceived by the mullah’s disinformation apparatus over the MEK and quoted only sources that are opposed to the MEK.

Sources like Daniel Benjamin a former State Department official has failed to criticize the mullahs or condemn the Regime or its Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) for its many documented human rights violations or terrorist activities.

This makes the article a one-sided hit piece, not worthy of the term journalism.

The shameful article of #NBCNews raised the anger of many #Iranians diasporahttps://t.co/KnQBpO45v6#MEK #Iran #IranFreedom @USAdarFarsi pic.twitter.com/IZR7Ry0gCu

— MEK Iran (Mujahedin-e Khalq) (@MEK_Iran) October 26, 2019

Dr. Sofey Saidi, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee at the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), wrote: “It is unfortunate that the NBC News chose the latter, smear option. This shameful choice, especially in the age of global, borderless information dissemination, is unacceptable. The decision to publish untruth seems intentional and attempts to misinform the public. “

The specialist in the Middle East, Latin America, and Global Politics explained that it is inexcusable that NBC News was deceived by the Iranian Regime, especially when the publishing of these lies has the potential to cause enormous damage.

She cited the recent revelation by Albanian police that they thwarted a planned attack by a Tehran-backed terrorist Quds Force, an elite unit of the IRGC that is responsible for foreign operations, against the MEK in Albania in 2018. It’s also worth noting that Iran’s ambassador to Tirana and another diplomat were expelled from Albania last December for threatening Albania’s security.

#NBC News Stands on the Wrong Side of the History https://t.co/9Za1QS8plg#FakeNews #StopYellowJournalism

— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) October 28, 2019

The Albanian police’s revelation came on the 36th anniversary of the Beirut Barracks Bombings, conducted by Iran-backed Hezbollah, which killed 220 US Marines, 18 sailors, and three soldiers. This terrorist act is one of the reasons that the US State Department has designated Iran as the State Sponsor of Terrorism since 1984.

Dr. Saidi wrote: “Now more than ever, it is imperative for information outlets such as NBC News to familiarize the public about Iran’s history of brutal suppression and its worldwide terrorist network. To warn the officials and policymakers about the consequences of appeasing the tyrannical rulers in Iran. To warn about the global threat of a nuclear-powered tyrant in Iran. To warn about Iran’s meddling in Syria, Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen and its role as the source of war and instability in the region.”

She said that NBC News should tell the Iranian people’s uprising and stand on the right side of history.

Facing the growing popularity of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK), the Iranian regime and its apologists try to run a new demonizing campaign against the main opposition, MEK. The recent example is an article posted on NBC Website.

This shameful article raised the anger of many Iranians diaspora who find the MEK as their only hope for democratic change in their beloved homeland, Iran. the following our letters by two Iranians expressing their feelings about the biased article of the NBC.

"These outlets are mainly pro-engagement and pro-appeasement vis-à-vis the fascist mullahs’ in Tehran despite this regime’s atrocious human rights record with the world’s highest number of executions per capita."#Iranhttps://t.co/b7dVNn9mq8

— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) October 21, 2019

The first letter is from Mr. Ehsan Qaraee; he writes:

“I am an Iranian-Norwegian civil engineer, and human rights activist. Several days ago, I read an article on your website regarding the MEK, the largest and most organized opposition against the theocratic dictatorship in Iran. Unfortunately, this article is filled with slanders and lies about the history and reality of the MEK and sadly repeats baseless accusations made by the propaganda apparatus of the Iranian regime.

Here I only refer to one of those accusations; your writers claim that the MEK killed several Americans back in the 70s. Unfortunately, they deliberately ignore the fact that several courts in your own country dismissed this allegation (among many others). These lies are made by the Iranian regime just to smear the MEK.

Unfortunately Mr Daniel Benjamin has proved many times in the past that his intentions are not right about the MEK particularly and Iran policy in general and because of that he gets so much coverage by the IRGC’s news media, a real terrorist organization which has blood of many Iranians, Iraqis, Syrians,… and Americans on their hands. I’ll attach some of those coverages here.

As a direct victim of the Iranian regime, I sincerely hope that you don’t let your news outlet become a mouthpiece for the dictatorship in Iran.”

Another rebuttal to lies about the #MEK– Fake News published at NBCNews
https://t.co/2TIuekVYGn#NBCNews #Iran #FreeIran @USAdarFarsi

— MEK Iran (Mujahedin-e Khalq) (@MEK_Iran) October 26, 2019

The second letter MEK- Iran received is from Amir Seifi, a political refugee, Irish citizen, Mechanical Engineer and the General Manager of a medical technology company, living in Dublin, Ireland. In his letter, Mr. Seifi wrote:

” This is a rejoinder to the NBC News inflammatory and partial article published on October 17th, 2019, titled: “Giuliani’s work for Iranian group with bloody past could lead to more legal woes”.

As an Iranian, I found nothing surprising and new about this hatchet job or any of its false, misleading and tendentious points. A prime example of Fake News. Iranians are very well familiar with such threadbare tactics of the brutal theocracy holding Iran hostage for the past four decades. It is not only victim-blaming but also siding with the perpetrators.

I have no intention of defending the current White House administration. However, with the upcoming campaign for the American presidential elections, this hit piece seems perfectly timed to fuel a specific political agenda; using attacks against political opponents to target the Iranian opposition. One stone and two birds. The Ayatollahs and their lobbyists are great at finding allies with direct and indirect common interests.

The baseless accusation of the PMOI/MEK killing Americans has been examined in courts and by the various American agencies and dismissed as there was not a shred of evidence to back this claim. On the contrary, the Iranian regime has a colorful track record of killing hundreds of Americans in terror attacks such as the Beirut barracks bombings, Khobar Towers bombings in Saudi Arabia, the use of the IEDs in Iraq and so on. It is easy to realize how people like the authors of the article and Daniel Benjamin can turn a blind eye to the latter and but insist on targeting the MEK without any form of investigation on the claims.

The designation of the MEK as a terrorist organization does not need much explanation but just that it happened as part of an appeasement policy towards the Iranian regime, which didn’t yield any fruit in the end. It was thanks to the impartial and independent judiciary system of the United States that found this label unjust and baseless and ruled and forced the resisting administration to remove it.

Leaving aside all baseless accusations, it does not appear really difficult to identify the just side. On one side we have a resistance whose members and supporters have been imprisoned, tortured and murdered. A resistance that has time and time again announced and pledged its commitment to its clear ten-point plan for a free, secular and democratic future for Iran. On the other side, we have bloodthirsty tyrants (needless to say unpopular inside and outside Iran) and their lobbyists like NIAC and supporters such as Benjamin who constantly seek opportunities to serve the Ayatollahs’ regime and its allies. And on this path, they do not care one iota when it comes to sacrificing the values within the Human Rights Declaration and the American Constitution for their own political agenda.

Finally, questioning the source of the MEK/PMOI funds and calling it a mystery is another astounding tendentious remark from the authors of the article and the people whom they quote. To call this lazy journalism is an understatement. I proudly announce that I personally am one of the financial sources of the MEK, along with countless other patriotic Iranians who yearn for a free and democratic Iran. I can back my claim with evidence of my contributions to the MEK/PMOI/NCRI. We, the ordinary Iranians, are whom the resistance relies on upon to fund its struggle against the regime. We understand what the Iranian regime truly is and what it takes to claim our country back again. I was forced to leave Iran after the student uprising of 1999 and 20 years later, people are coming to the streets every day to demand the mullahs go. We will continue to support their opposition and will not stop until our country is free of dictatorship.”

Staff Writer

Albanian Police Chief revealed, this Wednesday  23 October 2019, a terrorist plot in detail against the MEK’s headquarters in Tirana planed by the Quds Force.

Police chief Ardi Veliu said the foreign wing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (Quds Force) operated an “active terrorist cell” targeting Mujahedin-e Khalq or MEK group members in Albania.

Albania Daily News reported that the Albanian Police Chief Officer said that the Albanian Police prevented a terrorist attack against Iranian opposition in Albania.

New details on Tehran’s terror plot against Iranian opposition MEK members in Albania#Iranhttps://t.co/BrCjWVJ8T9

— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) October 24, 2019

Iranian regime’s Quds Force operative named “Peyman” had organized terrorist agents to launch a series of terrorist acts against the MEK in Europe. Reuters on 20 October reported:

“Albanian police foiled a number of planned attacks last year by Iranian agents against an exiled Iranian opposition group living in Albania, a senior officer said on Wednesday.”

“The Albanian authorities have identified these individuals and thanks to intelligence from informants inside the criminal organizations have prevented the plan (attack) of March 2018 and the eventual planning of attacks by organized crime members … on behalf of Iran,” Reuters added.

Assadollah Assadi, an Iranian diplomat terrorist, was arrested for a foiled bombing plot against the MEK in France on June 2018. He was the Iranian regime embassy’s third secretary in Vienna. He handled a high explosive device to two MOIS agents in Belgium to bomb the June 2018 gathering of Iranians in Paris. Assadi remains in prison in Belgium since he was arrested 16 months ago.

Reuters reported that France said in October 2018 there was no doubt Iran’s intelligence ministry was behind the  June plot to attack the NCRI’s annual rally outside Paris.

Albania expelled the Iranian regime’s ambassador and another top diplomat for “damaging its national security” last year.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran Committee on Security and Counterterrorism on October 24, 2019, stated:

” Whatever the regime’s ploys, as security services in Germany, the Netherlands and other European countries have stated, the MEK and the NCRI are the main targets of the demonization campaign, espionage, and terrorism by mullahs’ Intelligence Ministry and the Revolutionary Guards.”

Ali Safavi, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), said:

“It is time that the Iranian regime’s embassies in Europe, including the one in Albania, be shut down. They are not diplomatic centers, but direct and facilitate the regime’s terrorist operations abroad.”

Musa Afshar, from the Foreign Affairs Committee of NCRI, said yesterday in an interview with the Sky News TV:

“We ask all EU member states and particularly Albania to prosecute all agents of Quds Force in their countries, shut down Iranian regime’s embassies, and expel Iranian agents.”

The MEK on different occasions has stressed that all agents of the MOIS and the Quds Force must be prosecuted and expelled from European soil, the MOIS and the IRGC must be listed by the EU as terrorist organizations, and all Iranian regime’s agents must be expelled.

Simple conclusion: the fake news published by DER SPIEGEL in Germany, TV. Channel 4 in Britain and recently NBC News in the US, all in favor of the fascist mullahs, fuel terrorism against Iranian dissidents and particularly the MEK. What revealed by the Albanian Police is just one example.

#NBC Article: “Giuliani's work for Iranian group…”Is #FakeNews. Read more:https://t.co/5qzF5eB62C#StopYellowJournalism

— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) October 24, 2019

The growing popularity of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK), particularly in cyberspace and turning the Iranian youth to the Internet, compelled the Iranian regime to take this threat more seriously. The Iranian regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, of, has time and again showed this fear by tagging it as “educational attack”. He is aware of the real threat: the MEK and its popularity. He is witnessing that the MEK

has gained high popularity as the antitheses of the Iranian fundamentalist regime in both domestic and international levels.

In his speech at the IRGC University on 21 October, emphasizing the necessity of the use of all software and hardware tools, Khamenei said: “Today the cyberspace is among the necessary tools.”

Showing his fear of MEK’s presence in cyberspace, in a meeting with the regime’s MPs, Ali Asgari, the head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), said that the social media abroad is the gonfalonier against the regime in cyberspace.

Dozens of regime’s websites, Internet networks, and TVs are running demonizing campaigns against the MEK round the clock.

Pointing to the thirty-two radio and fourteen TV stations that give coverage to five continents, Payman Jebeli, the foreign deputy of regime’s TV acknowledged that the regime’s extra-territorial networks are in the front-line of cyber warfare.

Gholamreza Suleimani, head of Basij Organization, on 1 September 2019 affirmed that the regime has formed a thousand cyber battalions. He admitted that the Basij (paramilitary mercenaries under IRGC command) has organized tens of thousands of its personnel in social media to support the regime.

Acknowledging that the social media is the preferred field of the MEK, Gholamreza Jalali, brigadier general of the IRGC, said in an interview with Isna Agency, 29, July 2019:

“They try to impose negative influence on the public opinion and the society’s way of thinking, spreading despair and disappointment and exposing disability on the part of authorities. In my opinion, the new war with MEK in cyberspace is harder than Mersad (the greatest operation by the Resistance’s National Liberation Army in 1988) operation.”

Running demonizing campaigns against the MEK has reached nowhere yet, official remarks have defended brutal suppression against the MEK and have also expressed anxiety about the MEK’s progress and its role in organizing and galvanizing protests against the Iranian regime. Top officials warn about “major events” that could still be forthcoming.

The demonizing campaign launched by #Iran's regime against the opposition PMOI/#MEK failes miserably.https://t.co/MhNV4e7W7l

— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) September 19, 2018

The officials are fully cognizant of the fact that after years of a massive demonizing campaign against the Iranian resistance and systematic repetition of the claim that the MEK has no serious presence or role in Iran, acknowledging the real presence of the MEK in Iran is politically costly.

Meanwhile, the media report that the cyberspace is contaminated by the Iranian regime’s virus. The regime’s cyber Army misuses the Internet, including Wikipedia. Many think websites like Wikipedia are good sources for receiving information; however, experts know that users are the source of information and they can edit data. Iranian regime’s cyber experts take advantage of Wikipedia promoting the regime’s views.

Dr.Zahedi-#MEK Rep:In order to contain the situation, the regime is concentrating on widespread suppression,including arbitrary arrests, medieval trials, torture &executions, terrorism &demonizing campaign against the MEK as the main threat &enemy to its rule.#IranConferenceNYC pic.twitter.com/KLe8q0PFfK

— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) September 24, 2019

Publishing hundreds of books and making tens of movies by the Iranian regime against the MEK clearly portraits a desperate regime that hopelessly tries to prevent defiant youth from joining the MEK.