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Iran Receives Mojahedin-e Khalq's Computers Seized by Albania

Members of the People's Mojahedin Organization in front of the entrance to Camp Ashraf 3 near the Albanian capital, Tirana, on June 20 (AFP)
Members of the People's Mojahedin Organization in front of the entrance to Camp Ashraf 3 near the Albanian capital, Tirana, on June 20 (AFP)
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Iran Receives Mojahedin-e Khalq's Computers Seized by Albania

Members of the People's Mojahedin Organization in front of the entrance to Camp Ashraf 3 near the Albanian capital, Tirana, on June 20 (AFP)
Members of the People's Mojahedin Organization in front of the entrance to Camp Ashraf 3 near the Albanian capital, Tirana, on June 20 (AFP)

Albanian authorities handed over computer devices to Iran that were confiscated during a police raid of a camp inhabited by the opposition People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (Mojahedin-e Khalq) about two weeks ago near Manze, Iranian presidency official said on Tuesday.

On June 20, Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) said one of its members had been killed during a raid by hundreds of Albanian police officers on the Ashraf-3 camp, which Tirana denied. It also reported that the Albanian police confiscated 200 computers.

Chief of the Government's Information Council Sepehr Khalaji announced on Twitter that Iran received part of the hard drives and computer cases seized from Mojahedin-e Khalq.

Khalaji said the Iranian specialists are "busy retrieving information, identifying operatives, and the destructive cores and blind spots," adding that the "results so far are promising."

MEK warned that collaboration with Iran would lead to the "arrest, torture, and execution of the families, prisoners, and supporters of the MEK."

It accused Western countries of appeasing the Iranian regime amid reports about accelerating Iranian and European talks to revive the nuclear agreement.

Albanian police said they carried out searches at Ashraf-3, which is home to members of the People's Mojahedin suspected of plotting cyberattacks against foreign institutions, according to local media.

Albanian media reported that these operations were carried out as part of investigations into cybercrimes, noting that the police confiscated computers and software. It also announced the indictment of six members of the organization.

Iranian General Prosecutor, Mohammad Jaafar Montazeri, vowed that the trial of 700 MEK members would start soon.

Relations between Tehran and Tirana have been strained in recent years after the Balkan country agreed to receive on its territory 2,800 MEK members, the most prominent Iranian opposition faction in exile, at the request of Washington and the UN in 2013.

The Organization created a base camp near Durres, the country's main port.

Earlier, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanaani, warned France of the repercussions of "supporting and hosting terrorists" after the MEK held its annual conference in Paris.

The conference was held in the presence of former US Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and British ex-Prime Minister Liz Truss.

The "Iranian regime has never been weaker than it is today," said Pence, one of the potential Republican candidates for the presidential elections.

"I call upon the Biden administration, and leaders of all freedom-loving nations, to stand with the people of Iran, to stand up for the cause of freedom and justice and to cease and desist all nuclear negotiations with Tehran immediately," Pence said.

Thousands of MEK supporters staged a rally in the center of the French capital that the police had initially banned.

Kanaani "strongly condemned" the decision by the French government to host the meeting, reported AFP.

"Instead of compensating for the gross mistakes of the past in supporting the murderers of the Iranian people ... the French statesmen are providing an arena for the gathering of terrorists," Kanaani said, urging the French government "to heed the demands" of its people instead of "supporting terrorist groups."

The spokesman warned Paris of the political and legal repercussions of continuing to support and host terrorists and murderers of Iranian citizens and officials.

In 1979, the People's Mojahedin Organization supported the revolution led by Khomeini, which overthrew the Shah's regime before joining the opposition.

Tehran has banned the group since the early eighties, accusing it of being behind many attacks and bombings that have claimed the lives of thousands of Iranians.

The group also supported the Iraqi army during the war with Tehran between 1980 and 1988.

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Fire Tornadoes are a Risk Under California's Extreme Wildfire Conditions

The National Weather Service warned Tuesday that the combination of high winds and severely dry conditions have created a “particularly dangerous situation” - The AP
The National Weather Service warned Tuesday that the combination of high winds and severely dry conditions have created a “particularly dangerous situation” - The AP
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Fire Tornadoes are a Risk Under California's Extreme Wildfire Conditions

The National Weather Service warned Tuesday that the combination of high winds and severely dry conditions have created a “particularly dangerous situation” - The AP
The National Weather Service warned Tuesday that the combination of high winds and severely dry conditions have created a “particularly dangerous situation” - The AP

As if they aren’t already facing enough, firefighters in California also could encounter fire tornadoes — a rare but dangerous phenomenon in which wildfires create their own weather.

The National Weather Service warned Tuesday that the combination of high winds and severely dry conditions have created a “particularly dangerous situation” in which any new fire could explode in size. The advisory, which runs into Wednesday, didn’t mention tornadoes, but meteorologist Todd Hall said they're possible given the extreme conditions.

 

A look at fire tornadoes according to The AP.

What is a fire tornado? Fire whirl, fire devil, fire tornado or even firenado — scientists, firefighters and regular folks use multiple terms to describe similar phenomena, and they don’t always agree on what’s what. Some say fire whirls are formed only by heat, while fire tornadoes involve clouds generated by the fire itself.

The National Wildfire Coordinating Group’s glossary of wildland fire terms doesn’t include an entry for fire tornado, but it defines a fire whirl as a “spinning vortex column of ascending hot air and gases rising from a fire and carrying aloft smoke, debris and flame,” and says large whirls “have the intensity of a small tornado.”

Wildfires with turbulent plumes can produce clouds that in turn can produce lightning or a vortex of ash, smoke and flames, said Leila Carvalho, professor of meteorology and climatology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

“There is a rotation caused by very strong wind shear and a very hot, localized low-pressure system,” she said.

What is a fire tornado capable of? Fire tornadoes can make fires stronger by sucking up air, Carvalho said. “It creates a tornado track, and wherever this goes, the destruction is like any other tornado.”

In 2018, a fire tornado the size of three football fields killed a firefighter as it exploded in what already was a vast and devastating wildfire near near Redding, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) north of San Francisco in northern California. Scientists later described an ice-capped cloud that reached 7 miles (11 km) into the air and caused winds up to 143 mph (230 kph).

Research also suggests fire tornadoes can carry airborne embers, also called firebrands, over long distances, said James Urban, an assistant professor in the Department of Fire Protection Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. They also can change the fire’s behavior, he said.

“That’s also something that is dangerous and scary for first responders, or really anyone,” he said. “It can change and maybe go in a different direction.”

The interaction between wind, the fire plume and topography determines whether a tornado will develop, he said. For example, sometimes a certain topography will restrict airflow in such a way that a spiral pattern develops.

Can you make one in a lab? Together with San José State University, Worcester Polytech is part of a Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center. In the lab in Worcester, researchers have created small fire tornadoes by putting up walls around a fire or arranging a bunch of little fires that together restrict airflow. But that’s on a much smaller scale than what’s happening with the wildfires.

“We’ve got the biggest fire lab in the US for a university, but we cannot get something the size of what’s been reported at these fires,” he said. “You can’t really bottle that and put it in a lab.”