>> The Intercept has found out that, one of the contributors
who has been pushing for regime change in Iran on various news publications here in
the United States is actually not a real person.
In fact it is a persona that's being manipulated by members of the so called MEK.
And this is a group that wants to topple the regime in Iran and they're pushing for this
regime change war that the Trump administration appears to be in favor of as well.
In fact, the Trump administration has specifically cited this very writer for its decision to
pull out of the Iran nuclear deal.
So according to the Intercept, Heshmat Alavi appears not to exist.
This is the contributor and he is published or this this name has been published in Forbes
several times.
Alavi's persona is a propaganda operation run by the Iranian opposition group, the MEK
which I mentioned earlier, which is known by the initials MEK.
Now Alavi is a persona run by a team of people from the political wing of the MEK.
They write whatever they are directed by their commanders and use this name to place articles
in the press.
This is not and has never been a real person.
So you guys this has been published, these pieces have been published in Forbes and various
other news organizations.
Where's the vetting?
I mean, I thought there was vetting that takes place when a contributor contributes his or
her work to these, Forbes, to these big name, print organizations, but I guess that's not
what's happening.
>> So can I just say real quick on that?
>> No, yes, you can.
>> So Forbes changed their model a little bit, and they allowed people to contribute
from the outside.
And that's part of why they were able to take advantage of that so much.
This non person, wrote 61 different articles for Forbes, just between April 2017 and April
2018.
So just a one year period, let alone all the other things he wrote for Forbes.
So they get kind of hoodwinked, The Hill, also in that category but then there are others
who are willing participants.
So now the Daily Caller says, we didn't know and we stopped publishing them later but it
helps their agenda.
The Washington Free Beacon, that's a New York Conservative site puts up as propaganda and
it's very convenient for them.
It's exactly what they want, and it's what the Trump administration want.
And they create this ecosystem where that literal fake news by a fake person gets promoted
all the way up to actually affecting policy.
So that's why it's super dangerous.
>> Right, this persona or so called person has also published articles in a Saudi owned
publications.
Which by the way, makes a lot of sense, because Saudi Arabia is in a conflict with Iran which
is part of the reason why we see what's happening in Yemen today.
And one other thing I wanted to note, let's go to graphic 28.
The Intercept reached out to the editors at the outlets that had published these pieces
over the past several years.
none of the outlets were able to confirm that even spoke to this person.
So they never even had an actual conversation before allowing this so called person to publish
or contribute pieces in these publications.
And by the way, the MEK wants to topple the Iranian regime, right?
So Cenk is right, the right wing news organizations want that.
And so they'll go ahead and print this stuff, willy-nilly.
But when it comes to so called objective or neutral print publications, this is unacceptable.
There should have been a better vetting process.
>> I wish we had maybe like the Washington bureau chief of the intersection talking about
this.
>> Yes.
>> Wait a minute, there you are.
So all right, Ryan I don't know if you were involved in this piece at all.
I saw this piece of the morning and I was like this amazing story.
And I called Anna who produces these shows, she's like I'm on it already.
I'd forgotten that you were gonna be on the show today.
So how did you guys first figure out that the person didn't exist in the first place?
>> Well, the defector that is mentioned the stories, essential to this.
The MEK has this extremely, I don't know I wanna necessarily call it sophisticated but
expansive trolling network particularly on Twitter aimed at influencing the conversation
in the United States around decision, around decision makers.
And I think there's a lot more to it.
We're looking into some other avenues of this, whether or not some of this actually being
done by State Department-funded organizations.
And so as an editor, it's like wow, I actually hadn't thought to question whether or not
the person who emailed me existed.
This is a new thing, I'm gonna have to put on the on the checklist of I don't handle
a ton of freelance work.
So thankfully I know that the people that worked for me do exist as human beings.
But the Forbes is I think an interesting situation, because people who don't as you mentioned
they have a new model.
People who haven't followed their evolution think of Forbes as this reputable, credible
news outlet that covers the financial industry and is generations old and of impeccable credibility.
When in fact they've kind of turned part of their business into just anybody who want
s publish can kind of sneak their way in there.
And so if you don't know that, yeah, you'd have to kind of be in the industry to know
that.
Then you see Forbes and the Trump administration's using this.
So they and The Hill really need to check themselves, because they're being used.
If somebody wants to post something fake on medium, what are we gonna do?
>> Yeah.
>> But you you can't really use a medium post to back up getting out of the Iran nuclear
deal, >> Right.
>> But even the Daily Caller is invited to the White House not just on a Trump administration,
but Obama allowed them in.
So this is again, a biased in favor of the right wing that it happens often in Washington.
But I wanna ask about one other thing Ryan.
So MEK was a terrorist organization, they were on our terrorist list all the way till
2012.
They had killed people all the way up to 2001 and they are a wild radical cult but all of
a sudden they've become really legitimate by Washington status.
They give money to politicians, I'm not even unclear on how a foreign group is giving money
to guys like, in the past John McCain and Bob Menendez.
But they also have a lot of people on the right wing, and left wing who go and give
speeches and get a lot of money from MEK.
So how in the world did this terrorist group that is led by a wild cult turn into this
completely legitimized organization in Washington?
>> They put money in the meter and some of the left wing people or Howard Dean, Ed Rendell.
Those types of folks, they took extraordinary amounts of money to go on MSNBC or to give
speeches.
And then they can say, well, how can we be a terrorist organization when we have this
guy who's not a terrorist?
Vouching for us, and it eventually worked, it got them off the terrorist list.
And now, yeah, the Trump administration considers, like you said, this cult-like organization
whose holed up in Albania as some type of a rightful.
It's not to praise the current Iranian regime but as if these folks are gonna have any popular
support and Iran.
>> But Ryan, I don't think it's just money, because if a terrorist organization-
>> Wants money and they have the same enemies as we do.
>> Bingo, right?
Because I was gonna say if a terrorist organization from Iran, but that was part of the government,
not opposed to the government, came in, there's no amount of money that can get Howard Dean
or the right-wingers, I think Giuliani, this features him, etc.
>> Probably, yeah.
>> So they had really established figures on the left and the right.
All said there's wonderful MEK, I'd love to take money from them and tell you how wonderful
they are, right?
That needs a go ahead, that needs a wink and a nod.
And so I don't know that the reporting has been done on that but in my mind there's only
two things I can give you enough a wink and a nod for those guys to do this.
And that's Israel or the CIA.
And so look that's for further reporting and I'm just speculating.
>> I think you're right, cuz they need it, they were they were still on the terrorist
watch list when some of this was going on.
And so in order to take that money and not go to prison you have to have some assurance
from people in the right places that this is an okay direction to go.
>> Yeah, look, if my agent came to me and said hey, Musa Haldin El-hag which on the
terrorist watch list, we'd like to pay you x amount of money to speak for them.
I'd be like no, >> Not within a mile of close, right?
But you would presume that Edwin Dales and the Republican leaders would be more careful,
though I don't know about that, right?
No, they would go and ask someone, and so who did they ask would that told them, no,
they're cool now, we're all good.
>> Yeah.
>> Right?
>> We've taken care of that terrorist thing don't worry.
>> Yeah, yeah, so they had have gotten the green light from somebody.
Because you don't mis-red tag group of random dudes who are almost wiped out, and then all
of a sudden get moved to Albania, and get setup with a new headquarters.
Get these personas and trolls and bots and lots of money from somewhere and then agitate
towards war with Iran when they have no credibility within Iran at all.
And by the way that's also an Intercept story.
They helped Iraq fight against Iran in what was a devastating, brutal war, they'll never
be forgiven inside Iran for them.
So this is a totally nonsense group and then the neocons turn around, the people of Iran
really like MEK.
Hilarious, ridiculous lie, right?
But there's someone behind that lie, there's an agenda behind that lie.
So don't like yeah, I'm doing some speculation here and I only list those two.
Because they would have enough credibility in Washington to be able to give a green light.
But until there's more reporting in, we don't quite yet know if there's another force behind
that MEK.