How Iranian MEK Went from US Terror List to Halls of Congress

N O . 1 2 0

U P T O D A T E PUBLICATION OF AAWA - ASSOCIATION OCTOBER 2019

https://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/decryptages/comment-lorganisation-des-moudjahidine-du-peuple-est-passee-de-la-liste-noire-du How Iranian MEK went from US terror list to halls of Congress

Described by critics as 'a cult', Iranian opposition group is now lauded by top US officials as alternative to Iran's government

By Ali Harb, July 17, 2019

As soon as Maryam Rajavi, her face beaming across a giant screen, finished speaking, the sky above hundreds of her supporters in the United States filled with red, white and green confetti - the colours of the Iranian flag.

Dressed in a glossy, dark blue suit and matching scarf tied loosely around her neck - a modest way to wear the hijab that went out of style decades ago in the Middle East - Rajavi had just accused the Iranian government of "terrorism and belligerence".

"Iran Maryam, Maryam Iran," the protesters chanted back, holding up posters of Rajavi in a show of admiration bordering on religious devotion to the leader of the Iranian Mujahideen-e Khalq, commonly referred to as MEK or PMOI.

Dressed in yellow, the MEK supporters were lively but disciplined, standing in military formations as they stared up at the screen outside the US State Department building in Washington.

They waved pre-Islamic Revolution Iranian flags, which feature a golden lion brandishing a sword instead of the name of God in Arabic script that adorns the country's emblem today.

Critics have described the Iranian opposition group as a "totalitarian cult", voicing concerns about its growing clout in the halls of power in the US capital. Only seven short years ago, the US State Department listed the MEK as a terrorist organisation - and the group's sordid reputation is something Rajavi and her followers are acutely aware of.

At the 21 June demonstration, Rajavi even acknowledged it, accusing the MEK's detractors of siding with the Iranian government and carrying out a "disgraceful demonisation campaign" against the group. That effort, she said in Farsi in the video, which was accompanied by English subtitles, "seeks to perpetuate the narrative that the people of Iran are better off with the theocratic rule of the mullahs".

In her brief speech via video feed, Rajavi also thanked her "friends" in the US. Today, they include representatives, senators, ex-generals, former ambassadors and current policymakers of all political stripes.

In fact, two of Donald Trump's right-hand men have been on the MEK's payroll: National Security Adviser John Bolton and the president's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, have both charged hefty fees to speak continues on page 4

UP TO DATE N0.120/OCTOBER 2019 Page 2

https://ricochet.media/en/2792/liberal-in-richmond-hill-faces-smear-campaign-in-bid-for-re-election MEK Trolls in Albania are activated against Canadian MP

Angry protesters showed up multiple times at Liberal MP Majid Jowhari’s Richmond Hill constituency office last week, holding signs plastered with his picture that read, “Shame on You. You will not Re-elected” and “NO to Lobbyist of Islamic Terrorist Regime in Iran.”

Shenaz Kermalli, Ricochet Media, October 26 2019:

Liberal MP Majid Jowhari is being fiercely targeted by online activists, trolls, and angry Liberal members in his own riding. What’s behind the hate?

Meanwhile, local residents received cryptic emails from a former Liberal politician, Reza Moridi, saying he and three other former Liberals are “unable” to vote for Jowhari’s most vocal offline critic, Reza Moridi, is a former Jowhari. The email offered no explanation for the Liberal MPP for Richmond Hill and former Ontario minister of statement. research, innovation and science. He denies there’s a smear campaign against Jowhari. “It’s not an attack or targeting,” Still other voters that had placed Jowhari campaign signs Moridi told Ricochet last Friday, in reference to the cryptic in front of their homes reported finding papers dropped on email he had sent to local residents on Oct. 9. “It’s a reverse their lawn or placed on car windshields. The documents, endorsement, that’s all.” obtained by Ricochet, are titled “A Better Introduction to Mr Jowhari’s Family” and slander his wife, mother and The email sent to local residents included photos of Moridi brothers, suggesting they are connected to international and three others: Bryon Wilfert, former Liberal MP for drug business and other criminal activities. Richmond Hill; Sarkis Assadourian, former Liberal MP for Brampton Centre; and Richard Rupp, former president of the And on Thursday, a highly followed but fake Twitter Richmond Hill Federal Liberal Association. Above the photos, account associated with the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK), a a single line read: “As concerned Richmond Hill Liberals we cult-like group from Iran that has a history of engaging regret that on October 21, we are unable to vote for Majid with Canadian politicians, added to an ongoing online Jowhari, the Liberal Candidate in Richmond Hill.” smear campaign against Jowhari by tweeting a long thread urging Canadians to unseat him. When asked why he decided to send the email to voters, particularly without an explanation of why he and the others Sources close to the Jowhari family and campaign told were “unable” to vote for Jowhari, Moridi said, “These are Ricochet it’s been a “horrible” time for the family and that Liberal MPs and also two former Liberal riding presidents. they often feel unsafe. We came to the conclusion that we cannot support him. “They [his critics] have painted him as the complete People can make their own decisions. opposite of everything he stands for. It’s not even remotely “We reviewed media reports over the past four years and close to who he is,” said one source who asked not to be also records of the candidate. I’m sure every voter is doing identified due to fear of being targeted themselves. their own research of the candidates. We’re just saying we “It’s all sophisticated and interrelated,” they added. “I’ve did that research and came to that conclusion. Coming to had to contact police before. People don’t understand that that decision is not difficult.” fake news can actually kill you.”

UP TO DATE N0.120/OCTOBER 2019 Page 3

In response, Jowhari’s office posted a response on “When you talk and sit at a table, you can exchange his Facebook page the next day: “This communication ideas, whether it’s on the issue of human rights, represents the worst type of campaign tactics – a non- whether it’s freedom of press or women. We need to sit specific note from a group who do not have the courage of at the table…. You cannot have a dialogue behind their convictions to say what party and policies they do closed doors.” support but are prepared to say only what they don’t But some residents don’t believe him. Salman Sima, a support without providing any rationale or substantiation.” former political prisoner in Iran, is one of Jowhari’s But voters were met with another shock a few days later most vociferous critics on Twitter, having previously when the Shahrvand, a Farsi-language newspaper, came called him a foreign agent and a representative for out with Moridi’s photo splashed on the front page, along Ayatollah Khamenei in the Canadian Parliament. Sima with a proclamation of his support for Richmond Hill’s stands accused of starting a smear campaign against Conservative candidate, Costas Menegakis. The idea that a Saman Tabasinejad, an Iranian-Canadian NDP former Liberal leader was overtly canvassing for voters in candidate in Ontario’s last provincial elections, calling his riding to vote blue sparked coverage in conservative her the granddaughter of a major cleric in Iran. outlets The Toronto Sun and Rebel Media. Tabasinejad later debunked this rumour on Twitter.

Soon after, 100 Liberal members and supporters sent Sima joined several other critics protesting when a letter addressed to the Ontario Liberal Party requesting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited a Richmond Hill that the party leadership publicly reject Moridi’s coffee shop on Oct. 13. endorsement. Former Ontario premier and current MPP “We believe that Mr Jowhari doesn’t follow Liberal and Kathleen Wynne put out a statement on Moridi’s decision to Canadian values, including respecting human rights, endorse a Conservative candidate in Richmond Hill. “As you respecting women’s rights and respecting LGBT rights,” know, Reza Moridi has been a trusted colleague of mine for he told Ricochet. “Why? Because we know and I a number of years,” she wrote. “Having said that, Reza is no believe that he is supporting one of the most longer a member of the provincial legislature nor does he misogynistic regimes in the world — the Islamic regime speak for the Liberal Party.” in Iran.” Jowhari’s office declined to comment for this story, saying Sima said the staged protests were non-partisan and they wanted to stay focused on his campaign and local unlinked to any political Iranian opposition groups, residents. “We are not focused on the negative voices that including MEK. are out there in the wilderness,” Jowhari’s campaign manager Michele Bussieres told Ricochet. “I write lots of things criticizing some opposition groups, including MEK,” he said, adding he knew many Canada-Iran ties residents who voted for the NDP and Liberal their The long-term rift between the two Iranian politicians whole lives but were strongly opposed to Jowhari. stems from their ideas around Canada-Iran relations, with “Linking the protests against Majid Jowhari to MEK or Jowhari advocating for a normalization in ties, while any political parties is not fair because I know that lots Moridi argues Iran should be kept at a distance. Moridi and of people come from lots of different ideas and other critics interpret Jowhari’s position as support and backgrounds.” endorsement for the theocratic regime. Regardless, it’s clear Jowhari is being watched. On When questioned by reporters last week, Jowhari said the Thursday, the “Heshmat Alavi” Twitter account tweeted accusations of his support for Tehran have no foundation. a 17-post thread “shedding light on Jowhari being a “Our government promised in 2015 that we will keep the Tehran apologist/lobbyist.” An investigation by The dialogue open. … We will establish a relationship with our Intercept last June found the account was created by eyes wide open and step by step,” he said. “That hasn’t MEK, which is supported by Washington. changed. We want to make sure that we encourage Also that week, Hassan Dai, an editor at the Iranian- diplomacy based on a proven and deliberate track record American Forum website, urged Richmond Hill from both sides, especially on the Iranian side. residents to vote against Jowhari in a tweet to his “Dialogue also doesn’t mean appeasement,” he added. 11,000 followers.

UP TO DATE N0.120/OCTOBER 2019 Page 4

continued from page 1 terrorist organisations in 2012, the MEK has taken at MEK rallies in the past few years. advantage of its ability to operate legally in the country - and a growing hostility towards Iran - to court policymakers. For their part, the MEK protesters, standing in front of the same building that labelled their organisation a "Bashing Iran is good politics in certain circles... If there is a terrorist group in 1997, were making demands of the US possible financial incentive as well, it becomes easy for a lot government: "US, US, take action; mullahs must get more of lawmakers to sign up," said Ryan Costello, policy director at sanctions," they shouted. "#Free Iran" was spelled out in the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), a Washington- golden balloons in the crowd. based advocacy group.

Beyond Giuliani and Bolton, lawmakers from both major Last month, key legislators and former officials delivered American political parties have lauded the MEK as a pro- messages of support at the MEK gathering in Washington, democracy movement despite its checkered past. including Senator Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Committee on Foreign Relations. "It's just ridiculous that they've been able to get the influence that they have had in the US," said Barbara "Thank you for continuing to highlight the plight of Iranians Slavin, director of the Future of Iran Initiative at the under an oppressive, brutal regime," Menendez said in Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank. a written statement that was read out during the demonstration. "I share your vision for a better future for Iran "I think that's primarily due to the money ... that they pay and all Iranians." lobbyists to press their case," she told MEE. "They've had some very influential people like John Bolton and Rudy The rally came less than 24 hours after Trump ordered, then Giuliani who have taken their side." cancelled, military strikes against Iran amid escalating tensions between the two countries. The New York Giuliani showed up at an MEK podium again this Times reported at the time that Bolton was one of the top month, headlining a conference in Albania, where the White House officials encouraging military action. dissidents are now based. The former New York City mayor described the group as a "government-in-exile", Bolton, a regular speaker at MEK gatherings, shares the saying it is a ready-to-go alternative to lead the country group's view that the Iranian regime cannot be reformed and if the Iranian government falls. instead must be toppled. At a MEK conference in Paris in 2017, a few months before he joined the Trump "We don't have to say, 'What could be worse?' We know administration, Bolton told the crowd they would be that there is something much better," said Giuliani, who celebrating the fall of the Iranian government before 2019. has publicly entertained and backed the prospect of regime change in Tehran. "I have said for over 10 years since coming to these events that the declared policy of the United States of America He went on to joke that Rajavi has more support than he should be the overthrow of the mullahs' regime in Tehran," he does in the US Congress - and judging by the group's said at the time. influence among powerbrokers in Washington, he may be right. Several speakers at last month's rally also stressed that the MEK is the right replacement for the government in Tehran. Bipartisan support "We need a new regime, and that regime is you, the MEK," Bill Over the years, Senior House Democrats Eliot Engel and Richardson, a former governor of New Mexico and US Brad Sherman, Republican Congressman Tom ambassador to the UN from 1997 to 1998, told the crowd. McClintock, GOP Senator John Cornyn, The Organization of Iranian American Communities (OIAC), a Senate Democrats Gary Peters and Jeanne Shaheen, US-based, MEK-linked advocacy group, did not return MEE's and late Senator John McCain have all attended events multiple requests for an interview about its lobbying efforts in linked to the MEK and spoken in its favour. the US.

At the rally in Washington last month, both Democratic Asked if the MEK has enough legitimacy to be an alternative and Republican politicians praised the group's struggle to the Iranian government, as some of the group's backers against the Iranian government. have said, Slavin told MEE: "No, not at all."

Since being removed from Washington's list of foreign But she added that not all the lawmakers who speak at MEK

UP TO DATE N0.120/OCTOBER 2019 Page 5

events are necessarily aware of the group's history or supportive of the organisation itself. "They figure out, this group is opposed to the Iranian regime," Slavin said. "They don't look at the fine print; they don't examine the history of the group."

MEK history

The MEK started in Iran in 1965 as an ideologically driven, socialist and Islamist movement opposed to the dictatorial rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. It joined the ranks of the Islamic Revolution in 1979 but ran afoul of the uprising's leader Ruhollah Khomeini shortly after Pahlavi's fall.

After facing a deadly crackdown by Iran's new 'US, US, take action; mullahs must get more sanctions,' the protesters authorities, the MEK embarked on a series of chanted (MEE/Ali Harb) attacks on government officials and security forces. The group's members, led by Maryam Rajavi's Clinton removed the group from the State Department's husband, Massoud Rajavi, went into exile and eventually terrorist blacklist - 15 years after it was originally added - settled in Iraq in 1986. There, they sided with Saddam allowing its members to work openly in the US. Hussein in his war against their home country. During the debate about legalising the MEK in the US, New The Iran-Iraq war raged from 1980 to 1988, as York Magazine contributor Elizabeth Rubin presciently hundreds of thousands of people were killed and Iraqi warned that the group may use its new status to get forces openly used chemical weapons in battle. In a late Washington into war with Tehran. stage of the war, MEK militants were at the forefront, "If the group is taken off the terrorist list, it will be able to leading a major incursion into Iranian territory, which was freely lobby the American government under the guise of an repelled by the country's military in 1988. Iranian democracy movement," she wrote in 2011, After the war, the MEK remained in Iraq, and according comparing it to the influence Iraqi exiles exerted on the US to some of its critics, including NIAC, the group helped decision to invade Iraq. Iraqi forces brutally put down Kurdish and Shia uprisings "Recent history has shown that the United States often ends in the early 1990s - accusations that the MEK rejects. up misguidedly supporting not only the wrong exile groups in During the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq that toppled the Middle East, but the least relevant ones." Hussein, American forces bombed MEK bases in the Blacklisting and popularity country before reaching a ceasefire agreement with the But not everyone views the MEK in a negative light, as anti- group. Massoud Rajavi disappeared that year, and his Iran hawks have questioned why the group ended up on the whereabouts remain unknown, putting Maryam alone in US's terrorist blacklist in the first place. charge of the organisation. Raymond Tanter, a political science professor who served on Starting in 2009, the Iraqi government became more the White House's National Security Council in the early openly hostile to the MEK amid growing Iranian influence 1980s, said he studied the history of the group and is in Baghdad. As a result, the US led efforts to get the convinced it is on the "right side of justice". group's members out of Iraq and shutter their main base at Camp Ashraf outside the capital, where the group's In a recent interview with MEE, Tanter said former President members were confined after the invasion. Bill Clinton placed the Iranian dissidents on the list of foreign terrorist organisations in 1997 to appease Tehran. "They Once out of Iraq, the MEK began to resettle in Albania in were there because the Clinton administration wanted to do 2013. A year earlier, former US Secretary of State Hillary a favour for some of the so- continues on page 6

UP TO DATE N0.120/OCTOBER 2019 Page 6 continued from page 5 2007 and 2012. The group denied the report at the time, called 'moderates' who had been elected in Iran," he said. calling it a "sheer lie".

"[Supreme leader Ali] Khamenei was making sounds as [if] Still, the MEK has been accused of being responsible for he was willing to negotiate, but those sounds became very, a string of attacks throughout its history. very hollow and nothing came of that." In 2006, a US State Department report said the MEK Tanter said he avoids using the term MEK because of its carried out a series of deadly attacks in Iran, blaming the affiliation with the State Department's blacklist, preferring to movement for a 1981 bombing in Tehran that go with PMOI, which stands for the People's Mujahideen of claimed the lives of dozens of top Iranian officials, Iran. including Chief Justice Mohammad Beheshti. The group also openly conducted violent raids on Iranian Tanter told MEE that bipartisan support for the group stems embassies across the world in 1992. mostly from the organising efforts of the OIAC advocacy group. He said the OIAC is composed of Iranian Americans Moreover, in the pre-revolution era in Iran, the MEK was from across the US, including many white-collar behind "bombings and shootings directed against professionals. American military personnel stationed in Iran", former US State Department official Still, support in the halls of 'Attention paid is an indicator of the significance of Daniel Benjamin wrote in a Congress does not necessarily the PMOI and the larger NCRI have in Iran' Politico column in 2016. translate into tangible influence on the ground. - Raymond Tanter, political science professor But that militant past is MEK's critics say the group behind the MEK now, said has no representation inside Iran itself, where the people Kazem Kazerounian, an loathe the movement because of its militant history. engineering professor at the University of Connecticut who spoke at the pro-MEK rally in Washington in June. "They don't have a following in Iran; in fact, they are widely Kazerounian called the movement an "organised, detested for siding with the regime of Saddam Hussein legitimate resistance to the tyranny of the Iranian during the Iran-Iraq war," Slavin said. "They have no regime". constituency in the country." "Currently, they're not violent; they're not a military With a lack of independent reporting in Iran and the organisation," he told MEE. Kazerounian said members of underground nature of MEK activities there, it is difficult to the group are the "key organisers" of peaceful protests ascertain what level of support the group has among inside Iran, and added that the MEK's ongoing struggle Iranians. against the Iranian government gives it credibility. Tanter, however, said the MEK's popularity can be "In the lack of possibility of having a democratic election measured by the Iranian government's stated concern about - which actually we would like to get as soon as this it. Citing recent research by his students at Georgetown regime falls - resistance is the basis of legitimacy of the University, Tanter said the Iranian government incessantly [MEK-dominated] National Council of Resistance of Iran," mentions the MEK. "Attention paid is an indicator of the Kazerounian said. significance of the PMOI and the larger NCRI have in Iran," he said. Yet for a group that advocates gender equality and says it is the main pro-democracy Iranian faction, the MEK Slavin dismissed that argument, however, saying the does little to hide its ties to the ultraconservative, Iranian government shows concern about the MEK because autocratic government of Saudi Arabia. it views the group as a proxy for Saudi Arabia and Israel. "The MEK has committed acts of terrorism in Iran; let's be MEK rallies often feature pro-Saudi speakers and real about this," Slavin told MEE. sometimes even Saudi officials. For instance, Turki al- Faisal, a Saudi prince, former intelligence chief and key Militant past diplomat, addressed MEK rallies in Paris Seven years ago, NBC News cited two US officials as saying in 2016 and 2017, prompting accusations from Tehran that Israeli-trained MEK operatives were behind the that Riyadh supports terrorism. assassination of five Iranian nuclear scientists between Salman al-Ansari, president of the Saudi American Public

UP TO DATE N0.120/OCTOBER 2019 Page 7

Relations Affairs Committee, a pro-Riyadh lobby group in Washington, also spoke at the MEK conference in Albania on 13 July. He was repeatedly interrupted by cheers from MEK supporters as he bashed Iran in both Arabic and Farsi.

"I tell you clearly, as a Saudi citizen who loves and adores his country and an Arab proud of his Arabism and a Muslim honoured by his religion... we are all Ashrafi," he said, paying tribute to the MEK's base in Albania, known as Camp Ashraf-3.

Cult of Rajavi

The Saudis are not the only foreign officials Anti-war protesters disrupted the MEK rally in Washington last month to attend MEK events. (MEE/Ali Harb) Former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper spoke at the group's conference this month in Albania, where who describes himself as a Democratic socialist. he was joined by dozens of legislators and ex-ministers Ideology aside, rights groups have decried the MEK's from around the world, including former US senator and treatment of its own members. The movement requires Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joe Lieberman complete devotion to the Rajavis and the organisation, and a and parliament members from across the Middle East. 2005 Human Rights Watch report accused the group of Most of the speakers denounced Iran and sang the asking its followers to divorce their spouses to be fully praises of Maryam Rajavi and the MEK. dedicated to the MEK.

But Rajavi was not always so revered in Western HRW also said the group has committed violations "ranging capitals. In 2003, she was briefly detained in Paris from detention and persecution of ordinary members wishing along with dozens of MEK members on terrorism to leave the organisation, to lengthy solitary confinements, charges. A decade later, she released a 10-point plan severe beatings, and torture of dissident members". for the MEK in which she pledged support for free In 2009, Rand Corporation, a California-based think-tank, elections, gender equality, abolishing the death penalty said the MEK started demanding "near-religious devotion to and ending Iran's nuclear programme. the Rajavis" from its members in the 1980s. In addition, the Still, one provision of the manifesto seemed to address MEK forced its followers to remain celibate and cut ties to lingering concerns among the MEK's Western backers friends and relatives, the Rand report said. about the group's communist ideology - vowing to And to make up for a drop in popularity tied to its alliance respect private property and a free-market economy. with Iraq's Saddam Hussein, the group started recruiting The 2006 State Department report says the MEK Iranian economic migrants in the Middle East under false mixes "Marxism, feminism, nationalism and Islam". pretences - promising jobs and visas to Western countries, Indeed, the group's original logo showcases communist the report found. symbols, including a sickle and red star, below a verse Despite these reports about its activities, the MEK remains from the Quran that praises those who struggle - the shrouded in secrecy - and its complex ideological foundation mujahideen. is hard to fully understand, Slavin said.

The group's leftist beliefs may appear to make it a Put simply, she said: "It's a cult." strange bedfellow of right-wing hawks such as Bolton and Harper. But Tanter, the political science professor, This article is available in French on Middle East Eye French said he has spoken to many MEK members and found edition. them to be to the "right of" US Senator Bernie Sanders,

UP TO DATE N0.120/OCTOBER 2019 Page 8 https://gazetaimpakt.com/komandant-ali-safavi-sulmon-dezertoret-e-xhihadit-si-agjente-iraniane/ Ali Safavi and MEK Fake News Exposed In Albania

… Ali Safavi has also attacked MEK defectors in Tirana, or more precisely those former Mojahedin who have abandoned terrorism against Iran and have decided to lead a civilian life. Ali Safavi has denounced as Iranian agents some of the deradicalized Mojahedin who live in Tirana and who have given interviews to the BBC, Al-Jazeera, Channel 4, which have revealed to the world the crimes that exist inside the MEK jihadist camp. Dr. Olsi Jazexhi, Gazeta Impakt, Tirana Albania, October 24 2019

Commander Ali Safavi accuses MEK deserters of being Iranian agents

On October 24, senior Mojahedin Commander Ali Safavi, who following an attack against Iran by state police using fake news of terrorist cells, called in more Albanian media to the MEK headquarters in Manze, by issuing more attacks against Iran. But the coordinated attack between the ministry of General Lleshi and the Iranian Mojahedin has not stopped. On ABC News’ Klodian Alliance’s Gülenist television, Ali Safavi has also attacked MEK defectors in Tirana, or more precisely those former Mojahedin who have abandoned terrorism against Iran and have decided to lead a civilian life.

Ali Safavi has denounced as Iranian agents some of the deradicalized Mojahedin who live in Tirana and who have given interviews to the BBC, Al- Jazeera, Channel 4, which have revealed to the world the crimes that exist inside the MEK jihadist camp. Commander Safavi, who would have beheaded these members in Iraq, has already labelled Gholam Zadeh Shekari, Hassan Hayrani (heirani), Rahman Mohammadi as agents of Iran.

Asked by ABC news about the attack that Catholics Sander Lleshi and Ardi Veliu have launched against the Iranian state, he is quoted as saying that MEK did not know anything about the attack:

“We were not aware of the information that the director of state police presented… Albanian law enforcement agents should be commended for their hard work, gathering information about that network… We only learned of it yesterday from the media that broadcast it, but we did know that of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Forces, for example, one of the www.aawa-association.com people of that network, Alireza Naghashzadeh, were employees of www.aawa-association.uk the Ministry of Intelligence. We knew it, but we didn’t know he was part of the network that went public yesterday. We have general U P T O D A T E information and have provided information on other people of the regime N O . 1 2 0 OCTOBER 2019 in Albania in the past. Naghashzadeh wasn’t the only one. There are others, including Gholam Zadeh Shekari, Hassan Hayrani (Hajrani), Publication of Association AAWA e.V. Rahman Mohammadi. We know that they are in Albania but not where they Responsable: live. And our message to the Albanian authorities is that these people are Dipl.-Ing. Ali-A. Rastgou agents of the regime and should be arrested and expelled from Albania Postfach 90 31 73 because their duty is to prepare attacks on opponents of the Iranian D-51124 Köln regime, “Ali Safavi said. E-mail: [email protected]