![\"michael](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/michael-rubin-ahmad-chalabi-iraq-2.jpg\" "\\"michael")
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In his latest rebuttal to Michael Rubin\u2019s serial lies against Iran\u2019s main opposition group, the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MEK), NCRI Foreign Affairs Committee member Dr. Ali Safavi explains how the MEK has been the first and foremost victim of the Iranian regime\u2019s phony crusade of anti-Americanism. Exposing Rubin\u2019s shady ties with the regime\u2019s officials and jobbers, Dr. Safavi lays bare why Rubin must be scrutinized for dealing with a regime that has more American blood on its hands than any other hostile adversary. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Below is Dr. Safavi\u2019s article, originally published in CD Media<\/a><\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Iran\u2019s Mullahs Outsource Propaganda To Fake Washington Scholars<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n After recurring embarrassing failures, a desperate Michael Rubin is still\u202f<\/span>scraping the bottom<\/span><\/a>\u202fof the mullahs’ oil barrel when it comes to attacking the main Iranian opposition Mujahedin-e Khalq (<\/span>MEK<\/span><\/a>). His newest approach amounts to nothing more than putting together a narrative based on a bunch of lies that the MEK is anti-American.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Two key tenets have shaped the MEK’s policy and positions: a commitment to democracy and a focus on promoting the national interests of the Iranian people.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As such, the MEK has always been transparent in its opposition to America’s unconditional and immoral support for Shah\u2019s ruthless and corrupt dictatorship, restored to the throne by a CIA\/MI6 coup that toppled the popular and revered Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq. Had he not been overthrown, the course of Iran\u2019s history would have changed forever, and the fundamentalist mullahs would have not even had the opportunity to assume power.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But the MEK was not alone in its criticism of US policy vis-\u00e0-vis Shah\u2019s dictatorship. “Sixty years of Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make us safe \u2014 because in the long run, stability cannot be purchased at the expense of liberty,”\u202f<\/span>President Bush<\/span><\/a>\u202ftold the National Endowment for Democracy in November 2003.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In the 1960s and 1970s, the US reinforced its image as the protector of a brutal dictatorship, sowing the seeds of the popular anti-American sentiment in 1979. The MEK has been the primary victim of the mullah’s “anti-imperialist” propaganda. On January 24, 1979, for example, the MEK insisted on safeguards for democratic freedoms. When the MEK’s campaign for a secular democracy gained popular support, the mullahs tried to counter the trend through the takeover of the American embassy in November 1979. Since 1979, the MEK has persistently called on western governments to isolate the theocracy and instead support the popular will of the Iranian people to establish a democratic republic.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In this regard, Ambassador Lincoln Bloomfield\u2019s book, \u201c<\/span>The MEK: Shackled by a Twisted History<\/span><\/a>,\u201d sets the record straight. Rubin claims to be an academic but deliberately ignores indisputable historical facts because they render his claims worthless.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Rubin repeats the anti-American regime’s propaganda after he spent months in Iran rubbing elbows with the mullahs’ officials. He was even trusted to explore the\u202f<\/span>archives<\/span><\/a>\u202fof a notorious\u202f<\/span>IRGC Foundation<\/span><\/a>, something even loyal regime journalists have not achieved. In 1999, he\u202f”<\/span>exchanged<\/span><\/a>\u202fviews” in Iran with “an audience of about 500” that included “government officials.” Rubin wants to hide his own troubling past of cooperation with a regime that considers the US to be the “Great Satan;\u201d a regime that was executing my fellow MEK colleagues, group after group at that time.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n During the Cold War, the nerve center for the Soviet KGB’s propaganda network was called “<\/span>Department A<\/span><\/a>. According to a London School of Economics study, the nerve center had a network of “agents of influence,” which included a range of full-fledged spies to unwitting accomplices.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The analogous version of the Soviet “Department A” is the “Directorate of Nefaq (MEK)” of the Iranian regime’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS). According to a\u202f<\/span>US Library of Congress report<\/span><\/a>, “After the 1991 Persian Gulf War against Iraq, MOIS made anti-MEK psychological warfare one of its main objectives, but MEK nonetheless has remained a viable organization.” At the same time, the intelligence branches of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have a section\u202f<\/span>dedicated to<\/span><\/a>\u202fthe MEK, called the “Elteqat (eclectic).” These departments are large, well-funded, and sophisticated. Their day-to-day operation consists of disseminating false narratives about the MEK to discredit and weaken the organization.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n That is why Rubin is favorably covered in hundreds of articles produced by the regime’s media outlets like\u202f<\/span>Alef<\/span><\/a>,\u202f<\/span>Raja News<\/span><\/a>,\u202f<\/span>SNN<\/span><\/a>,\u202f<\/span>Farda News<\/span><\/a>,\u202f<\/span>Mehr News<\/span><\/a>,\u202f<\/span>Bultan News<\/span><\/a>,\u202f<\/span>ISNA<\/span><\/a>, the Quds Force’s\u202f<\/span>Young Journalists Club<\/span><\/a>,\u202f<\/span>Kayhan<\/span><\/a>, the mouthpiece of none other than the regime\u2019s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and MOIS affiliated websites. Indeed, when a discredited MOIS-run outfit,\u202f<\/span>Nejat Association<\/span><\/a>, reprinted his previous article against the MEK, Rubin, eager for attention, promptly retweeted it. However, realizing his blunder, he hastily\u202f<\/span>deleted the tweet<\/span><\/a>. Nejat regularly publishes Rubin\u2019s hit piece on the MEK.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In such a political terrain, Rubin is at worst a regime ghostwriter and at best an unwitting agent of influence for Tehran’s KGB. His narratives are an outgrowth of the regime’s Department A propaganda.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Rubin is no\u202f<\/span>stranger to propaganda<\/span><\/a>. After a\u202f<\/span>New York Times investigation<\/span><\/a>\u202finto his involvement in a “propaganda campaign” in Iraq, Rubin simply dodged questions about his activities and alleged financial gains. In 2014, he was linked to an\u202f<\/span>investigation<\/span><\/a>\u202fthat revealed the UAE’s multimillion-dollar deal with PR firm Camstoll. He has a similar track record with\u202f<\/span>Turkey<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Members of the US House of Representatives\u202f<\/span>said in 2011<\/span><\/a>\u202fthat the MEK \u201cseeks freedom, democracy, and human rights for the people of Iran.\u201d Referring to MEK\u2019s revelations about the mullahs\u2019 malign activities, they added, “Senior United States military officers have acknowledged on multiple occasions that MEK\u2019s intelligence has played a positive and effective role in saving the lives of American soldiers by exposing the threats and dangers of Iran\u2019s terrorist interventions in Iraq.”<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When Rubin was involved in advocating the invasion of Iraq in 2003, US-led coalition forces bombed the MEK’s bases, killing 50, including two women, and wounding dozens more, in the context of a\u202f<\/span>secret deal<\/span><\/a>\u202fwith the devil in Tehran.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Rubin’s latest pathetic claims were\u202f<\/span>first propagated<\/span><\/a>\u202fby the Iranian regime’s KGB-style MOIS in 2019. They are ridiculous.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It is despicable that while the Iranian regime was killing American soldiers in Iraq using IEDs and EFPs, Rubin was\u202f<\/span>coordinating with<\/span><\/a>\u202fthe regime’s intelligence operative in Iraq, Ahmad Chalabi. At that time, an August 24, 2006, Memorandum for the Record by Lt.-Col. Julie S. Norman, Joint Interagency Task Force commander at Camp Ashraf, Iraq,\u202f<\/span>noted that<\/span><\/a>\u202fMEK “intelligence has been very helpful\u2026 and in some circumstances has helped save the lives of [US] soldiers.”<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Safavi (@amsafavi) is a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)<\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In his latest rebuttal to Michael Rubin’s serial lies against Iran’s main opposition group, the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MEK), NCRI Foreign Affairs Committee member Dr. Ali Safavi explains how the MEK […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":304283,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,845,5493],"tags":[197,218],"class_list":{"0":"post-304281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran-resistance","8":"category-demonizing-mek","9":"category-demonization-articles-analyses","10":"tag-mek-iran","11":"tag-demonizing-mek"},"yoast_head":"\n![\"cd](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cd-media-ali-safavi-michael-rubin-1.jpg\" "\\"cd")
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