The Iranian regime has been involved in terrorism ever since it was founded in 1979. In order to silence its opponents, in addition to suppressing and executing protesters inside Iran, the mullahs’ regime carries out assassinations and physical eliminations of opposition members, especially the members and supporters of the main Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (aka MEK), in various countries including Albania.
During the last two years, the ambassador and deputy ambassador of the Iranian regime and two other diplomats were expelled from Albany on security charges. On December 22, 2018, two Iranian nationals were arrested by the Albanian police on terrorism suspicion.
In a series of TV documentaries entitled “The Wolf’s Footprints,” the Iranian Resistance TV has in recent weeks exposed the terrorist activities of the mullahs’ regime in different countries and identified individuals involved in these assassinations. The series investigates the clerical regime’s terrorist plots against the Mojahedin gathering in Albania and shows how the regime’s terrorist network was formed and is operating in the Balkans..
Anchorman: The Albania Report TV announced on March 22, 2018 the arrest of two Iranian nationals who were suspected of involvement in terrorism activities. What if you met these two individuals before they were arrested and asked them what were they doing in Albania? Their answer would most likely be:
Narrator: our names are Mohammad Alavi Gonabadi and Firooz Baqer Nejad. We are journalists and we came to Albania to film the Sultan’s Nowruz ceremonies. The Albanian Bektashis are in fact the Shiites and we are making a documentary about the Baktashis’ Nowruz ceremonies.
Anchorman : Wow! So it turns out we’re dealing with two innocent reporters who want to document Nowruz ceremonies. But what was the truth?
Hassan Nezam: Journalism and documentary production, etc. are the cover up of these mercenaries to enter Albania and to carry out terrorist operations against the Mojahedin. The journalism pretense of the Iranian regime’s agents is nothing new. This is a well-known ploy that Fallahian, the former Minister of Intelligence, openly boosted about.
Fallahian: We do not send an intelligence officer to Germany, Russia or the United States and for him to say that I am from the Ministry of Intelligence, please give me your information. We dispatch them as businessman or reporters or journalists.
Narrator :This tactic is known as False Flag. On November 5, 1997, the Iranian regime’s Mizan news agency wrote: “False flags refers to operations that when investigated, the investigators’ efforts will be diverted to another unrelated plot.”
Now let’s discuss these two individuals, Mohammad Alavi Gonabadi and Firooz Baghernejad and their plans. Mohammad Alavi Gonabadi is linked with the IRGC and was later promoted as the deputy of the regime TV broadcasting outside Iran. He worked closely with the so-called Center for Islamic Culture and Communications whose main objective is exporting fundamentalism.
Firooz Baghernejad, whose operation was in East Azerbaijan province, traveled to Tehran to plan the mission and together with Mohammad Alavi as a cameraman, started their preparation. As you can see, the IRGC and the Quds Force organize and dispatch its teams and individuals disguised as reporters and documentary makers, and connects them with the local people in the host country to carry out their mission. The Iranian regime uses all kinds of these false flags. The context of family is another of these false flags.
Anchorman: Alireza Naghashzadeh, an agent with a false family flag, was sent to Albania by Peyman and Unit 840 of the Quds Force to gather information against the Mojahedin. Who was Alireza Naghashzadeh? And how was he hired by the Ministry of Intelligence?
Narrator: Naghashzadeh left the MEK camp after the US invasion of Iraq and went to an American-controlled camp called the TIPF. He then flew to Iran on a Red Cross plane and met with and worked closely with a unit of the Ministry of Intelligence known as the Nejat Association. Naghashzadeh was sent abroad by the regime to carry out an operation against the Mojahedin. While maintaining his active contacts with the Ministry of Intelligence and the mercenaries of the Nejat Association, Naghashzadeh got in touch with other mercenaries paid by the Ministry of Intelligence. In a meeting in 2008 with other Intelligence agents in Paris, he explained false flag and psychological operations that made it clear his mission was dictated by the Ministry of Intelligence. Naghashzadeh stated:
“I have been in Europe for some time now. All this time we had to try not to be found by the Mojahedin … We reached this point in complete secrecy and fortunately we were able to find our friends from teh camp days … and now that we have come to Europe, I think it is right for us to claim our lost lives, if we can not do so, to enlighten the others who do not have this knowledge … and I also thank you for giving me this opportunity, as well as for providing me with the opportunity to help others … Of course, my first goal apart from this discussion is my family situation … my two brothers and I are trying to get our mother out of there.”
Hasan Nezam: Commissioning the family members to identify, collect intelligence, and then use the gathered the intelligence to assassinate the resistance members is a well-known tactic employed by the regime on a regular basis. This is very similar to the well-known deceptive ploy of disguising regime’s secret agents as so-called reporters for the sole purpose of collecting intelligence on the resistance members. Many of the assassinations abroad, when investigated, reveals this familiar pattern. First, they try to make connection via family members. Then they gather intelligence on the subject to be used later in carrying out the assassination. The case of Alireza Naghas-Zadeh whose mother was in Albania shadows the same pattern. Naghash-Zadeh used the same pretext of wanting to visit her mother, Tahereh Zarenji, to travel to Albania through Austria and Germany. It is note worthy to mention that Ms. Zarenji’s residence was in the proximity of the main building where the new year celebration ceremony was to be held. This is the building that the regime had targeted for bombing. Naghash-Zadeh visited Albania on March 18, exactly three days before the bombing operation due date. The operation was luckily foiled and Naghash-Zadeh left Albania 10 days later.
Narrator: This is the building where the 2018 MEK new year celebrations were to be held. The Quds force agents had planned to drive a truck loaded with explosive near this location and explode it. The criminal group of Abdulsalam Turgot was to deliver the truck to the location. Mostafa Rudaki who is the head of regime’s intelligence apparatus in the Iranian embassy in Albania, was the person in charge of the operation. To drive the truck as close as possible to the building, the agents needed to have a thorough and detailed information of the location and the roads. For that. Mostafa Rudaki had employed former MEK members collaborating with the Iranian regime including Ehsan Bidi, for the purpose of intelligence collection.
Narrator: Ehsan Bidi has been working with the Iranian intelligence in Albania for the past seven years. Bidi came to Albania on October 16, 2013. He used an Iranian passport provided by the Iranian secret service and claimed to be an ex-member of MEK seeking political asylum. His passport number is 16359072. The passport was issued in February 2012 and had an expiration date of five years later.
Hasan Nezam: Ehsan Bidi showed up in MEK camp in 2002 but a few years later surrendered himself to Iraqi forces. He later was dispatched to Albania from the headquarters of the Iranian intelligence service located in Mohajer hotel in Baghdad. Bidi has been very active in recruiting other agents in Tirana and has played a key role in information and intelligence gathering for the Iranian secret agents. Albanian police later arrested Bidi for suspicious activities including illegal border crossing.
Anchorman: So far, we have witnessed how the Iranian regime had created its terror squads, deployed its agents and made the plot. Now the scene is ready for carrying out the operation which naturally is to be carried out by local thugs and criminals. Abdussallam Turgut is the criminal that was hired to drive the loaded truck to the location. Let’s get to know him a bit better.
Narrator: Abdussalam Turgut is a 52-year-old Turkish citizen. A German court issued a warrant for him on November 21, 2009 for smuggling drugs. He was arrested in Albania in 2011 per German court order as well as Interpol for smuggling over 1.2 tons of heroine. Despite the fact that the court in Tirana had issued special order for very tight surveillance of Abdussalam before extradition to Germany, he was released two weeks later per orders from three judges. He was ordered to remain on house arrest instead of serving prison term. He was moved to an apartment in Kamz in Tirana. He later fled Tirana using a false passport.
Hasan Nezam: Despite fleeing Albania in 2011, Abdussalam Turgut illegally visited Albania a few times. It is also claimed that he has been active in Kurdistan and had used Iranian soil to smuggle drugs. Turgut uses several routes to smuggle drugs, including Balkans. He smuggles drugs to Albania through Greece which eventually end up in Italy. Another route used is through Turkey, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia with the final destinations of either Italy or Austria. Turgut heads a very strong drug smuggling organizations and is very close with the organized crime in Albania.
Anchorman: Now before we end the second show on the regime’s terrorist activities in Balkans, let’s review what we have covered so far.
Narrator: Unit 840 of the terrorist Quds Force is a secret and underground unit which is commissioned to execute operations outside Iran. This unit is commanded by a revolutionary corps member named Yazdan Mir-Maaroof also known as Sardar Bagheri. Peyman is a member of this unit who is in charge of anti-MEK operations in Albanian. Peyman chose Abdu-Khalegh Malek-Zadeh to head the mentioned terrorist operation. He then employed Alireza Naghash-Zadeh and Ehsan Bidi for information and intelligence gathering to carry out the assassination plot during the new year celebration event. For the final phase of the operation, namely driving the truck to the location for detonation of explosives, Abdussalam Turgut a well-known international criminal was hired. Furthermore, two more agents by the names of Mohammad Alavi Gonabadi and Firooz Bagher-Nezhad under the disguise of reporters were sent to Albania to assist in this terrorist plot.
