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US Policy Helping Iran Regime

July 18, 2011 by

The Atlanta Journal Constitution

Monday, July 18, 2011

 by Bob Barr

Over the last several months, peoples in several Middle Eastern countries have taken to the streets in protest of oppressive governments — reflecting a profound desire for reform and an end to corruption. Many politicians in Washington have hailed these protests and openly encouraged government leaders in the countries affected to take meaningful steps to transition to democratic rule. Except for Iran.

When the Iranian people rose up in June 2009 and began a wide and continuing protest against the Ahmadinejad administration and its religious leaders, all we heard from Washington was a modest degree of lip-service. Meanwhile, scores of Iranian youths wearing green, the color of the opposition, were killed, tortured, or imprisoned.

Iran remains the elephant in the room in terms of U.S. foreign policy. While sanctions have been placed on the country and other punitive diplomatic initiatives imposed, there has been no serious focus on or support for the Achilles Heel of the regime in Tehran — the Iranian people and their organized opposition.

In fact, the past three U.S. administrations have seriously and expressly weakened the ability of opposition forces in Iran to effect positive change. All three have done this by abusing U.S. law that permits the State Department to designate entities as “terrorist organizations” and thereby deny them recognition and access to resources. This is precisely what the federal government for 14 years has done to the single most important and best organized Iranian opposition group, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK).

The MEK is not in fact a terrorist organization, but was so designated in 1997 by the Clinton Administration to curry favor with Tehran. This ill-placed “goodwill gesture” effectively destroyed the ability of MEK to develop support and raise resources in the U.S. and elsewhere. Both George W. Bush and Barack Obama continued the policy, despite its obvious lack of success at producing any positive changes to the repressive regime in Iran. In fact, a strong argument can be made that continuing to placate Tehran by designating the most important opposition group in the country as a “terrorist organization,” has actually strengthened the regime.

Ramifications of this policy extend also to military and national security concerns. Iran’s continued development of nuclear and missile capabilities very well could be slowed by strengthening, rather than weakening, civil opposition groups. Groups like the MEK are more concerned with increasing freedom within Iran than with saber-rattling and wasting resources on dangerous nuclear weaponry.

To be sure, the MEK is controversial, and other Iranian opposition groups, including those associated with the former Shah, despise it. But being “controversial” is hardly a basis on which to black ball a legitimate political entity whose goals – freeing the Iranian people from the grip of religious zealots – coincide with official U.S. policy.

This view is shared by many leading military, intelligence and diplomatic experts in the United States. Earlier this year, three former Bush Administration officials – Michael Mukasey, Tom Ridge, Frances Fragos Townsend – along with Rudy Giuliani, wrote in the National Review that “MEK is not a terrorist group.” They noted also that the organization had, in fact, proved to be an asset to the United States by “provid[ing] valuable intelligence to the United States on Iranian nuclear plans.” John Bolton, Bush’s former UN Ambassador, concurs in this assessment.

Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle also see the value in helping rather than hurting the MEK — 83 members of the House have co-sponsored a resolution encouraging the State Department to delist the organization.

Ironically, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made statements publicly supporting “all Iranians who wish for a government that respects their human rights, their dignity and their freedom.” But the gulf between her public statements and official administration policy continuing the unfair and counterproductive punishing of MEK, belies Washington commitment to “human rights, dignity and freedom” in Iran.

by Bob Barr — The Barr Code

http://blogs.ajc.com/bob-barr-blog/2011/07/18/us-policy-helping-iran-regime/

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Prominent Former U.S. Officials Call for Expeditious Review of MEK Status and Its Removal from State Department’s Watch List, Urge U.S. Protection for Camp Ashraf

July 18, 2011 by

PRNewswire

July 18, 2011

WASHINGTON, July 18, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The following is being released by the Iranian American Community of Northern California:

In a symposium, coinciding with the anniversary of the ruling by a U.S. Federal Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the main Iranian opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK), former senior U.S. government officials called on the Department of State to expeditiously complete its review and remove the group from its list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO).

Panel of Senior Former US Officials Calls for De-Listing of the MEK, Protection for Camp Ashraf

The bi-partisan panel expressed dismay over the administration’s failure to resolve the humanitarian crisis in Camp Ashraf, Iraq, home to 3,400 members of the MEK and their families.

General Hugh Shelton, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1997-2001), General James T. Conway, Commandant of the Marine Corps (2006-2010); Governor Howard Dean, former Chair, Democratic National Committee; Louis Freeh, former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Togo West Jr., former Secretary of Veterans Affairs; Ed Rendell, Governor of Pennsylvania (2003-2011); Prof. Sarah Sewall, Director of Mass Atrocity Response Operations, Harvard Kennedy School of Government; and Professor Anita McBride, Chief of Staff to First Lady Laura Bush (2005-2009) spoke at the conference, moderated by Ambassador Mitchell Reiss, Director of Policy Planning of the U.S. Department of State (2003-2005).

“Whatever our political affiliation, it has no bearing today, as we are unified shoulder to shoulder in our effort to help right this wrong, to de-list the MEK and to help the people at Camp Ashraf,” Ambassador Reiss said in his opening remarks.

General Shelton remarked, “The State Department has failed to provide any, either classified or declassified, information that states why the MEK should have been placed on the list in the first place. They also last week, exceeded the 180 days that they had been given by the Court to produce evidence to substantiate their reasons why the MEK is on the list. I say, Wake up, State Department, take the MEK off the FTO list today.”

“We should not forget that the MEK is the best organized, it is the most formidable opposition to the current Iranian regime. It has challenged the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism for the past 32 years,” he added.

Governor Dean described the April 8, 2011 massacre at Camp Ashraf by the Iraqi forces as a war crime. “What looms in front of us is a far bigger war crime, and that is the massacre of the remainder of the 3,400 residents. And it is very clear there can be no assurance by the Iraqi Government that would have the credibility that we could rely on or that the people of Ashraf could rely on.”

Referring to the recent heightened campaign by the Iranian regime and its U.S.-based lobby to overshadow the growing consensus in the U.S. Congress and among policy and political circles on the need to immediately de-list the MEK, Governor Dean stated, “These people are not terrorists. You see in the paper the pro-Iranian lobbyist saying, well, they’re a cult and they’re this and they’re that. Well, first of all, I don’t believe that’s true, but even if it were, does that justify the murder in cold blood of people who are under American protection? I think not. Let’s stop the name calling and the foolishness and look at this for what it is. This is genocide, and we will not have it.”

Director Freeh emphasized, “The MEK… is not a terrorist group. Do you think for a moment that the likes of the people on this panel would be here if there was even a remote possibility that this organization was a Foreign Terrorist Organization? By the way, we all keep contacts with our associations and our agencies. No one has come up to me or any of my colleagues from their current agencies and said, you know I don’t think you should be doing this; this is a bad organization; this is an organization that has terrorists’ intent or capability. That’s not happened.”

Referring to the year-long use of delay tactics by the State Department in finalizing its review of the MEK status as “an absolute legal disgrace,” the former FBI Director said. “It’s a slow walk to nowhere, intended to frustrate the litigants and defy the order of the Court.”

“The fact that they have maintained this organization improperly without legal or factual basis on the Foreign Terrorist Organization List has given the Iranian regime, through its proxy in Baghdad, a license to kill… So the indecision here is not just an indecision. It is a facilitation of this regime through its proxy in Baghdad, unfortunately, murdering and killing….,” he added.

Former Secretary of Veterans Affairs Togo West Jr., said that he expected the Secretary of State “to do the right thing with respect to the MEK listing and to de-list the MEK. That is not our question. Our question is when? How long? How much more information needs to be reviewed? The State Department has not even responded to the Court of Appeals’ ruling of last year just yet.”

In regards to the dire humanitarian crisis imposed on Camp Ashraf, Mr. West stated, “I am less than clear on what our Government is going to do about Camp Ashraf, and it troubles me greatly… I agree with what has been said about the disaster that arises if they are forced to relocate inside Iraq. I agree that the United States continues to have a responsibility for that, and I urge the United States to step up to that responsibility.”

Dr. Sewall described the Iraqi army’s actions in Camp Ashraf on April 8 as “mass atrocity” and “slaughter of unarmed civilians” and warned, “We are at risk of an extraordinary humanitarian crisis by the end of this year unless we are able to rally the international community to step up to the plate. And here, I do think the United States bears a special responsibility. I do not think that we can, regardless of the legality, hide behind [Iraqi] sovereignty to escape the moral obligation that comes from the history that we have had with Camp Ashraf.”

General James Conway, former Commandant of the Marine Corps, began his remarks about the MEK and Camp Ashraf based on his “own observations and experiences” as “the only member of the panel that has had physical responsibilities for their security.” “As I dispatched some of my commanders to sit down and talk with these folks, as I visited myself, these people are not terrorists. They’re no more terrorists than the people here on the panel… We asked those people to disarm. They’re the only people in Iraq who are disarmed. And yet, these people complied willingly and have done what we asked them to do,” he said.

“Now, it seems to me the oppressive events [at Camp Ashraf] are such today that we have got to reconsider our national posture towards the people at Camp Ashraf and the MEK in general… And I’ve got to tell you what happened recently should be a national outrage and, unfortunately, I don’t see it,” Gen. Conway added.

Gov. Rendell  said, “I will send a letter to President Obama and to Secretary Clinton telling them, one, that the United States is morally bound to do everything we can to ensure the safety of the residents of Camp Ashraf and, two, if, Director Freeh and General Shelton and General Conway and Governor Dean and the rest of these great panelists say that MEK is a force for good and the best hope we have for a third option in Iran, then, good Lord, take them off the terrorist list. Take them off the terrorist list.”

“The fight being waged to de-list the MEK, the fight to protect the residents of Camp Ashraf, this fight is not their fight alone. It’s not your fight alone. It is America’s fight as well. Both our interests and our values are inextricably linked in this case. To the residents of Camp Ashraf, we stand with you, we will continue to work to change U.S. policy, and we will not rest until we succeed,” Ambassador Reiss said in his concluding remarks.

SOURCE Iranian American Community of Northern California

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Tehran’s Favorite “Lobbyist”

July 16, 2011 by
Originally published on stopfundamentalism.com
 
The infamous Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels’s has a well-known saying: “If you tell a lie big enough and repeat it often enough, and the whole world will believe it.”

Trita Parsi’s preposterous and naive attempt to besmirch the reputation of the main Iranian opposition Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK) as a “terrorist” group smacks of pure desperation to lay lie upon lie in order to build a metaphorical dam against a growing tide of support for the MEK in Washington and around the world.

That is, of course, not unexpected. Parsi is the head of the National Iranian-American Council (NIAC), a group widely considered as a “de facto lobby” for Tehran in Washington. Parsi himself has been the subject of an investigation by the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, which “revealed that most of the millions of dollars of federal funds received by NIAC were not used for their intended purpose and that he was working with a regime-controlled front posing as an Iranian nongovernmental organization.”

And in 2009, it was revealed that NIAC may have violated lobbying rules and tax evasions after the group’s own internal memos came to light as a result of a court order. According to the Washington Times, “Law enforcement experts who reviewed some of the documents, which were made available to The Times by the defendant in the suit, say e-mails between Mr. Parsi and Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations at the time, Javad Zarif – and an internal review of the Lobbying Disclosure Act – offer evidence that the group has operated as an undeclared lobby and may be guilty of violating tax laws, the Foreign Agents Registration Act and lobbying disclosure laws.”

In October 2006, Parsi e-mailed the Iranian regime’s UN ambassador. The email, one of a long series of messages between the two, reveals how Parsi acted as the middleman between regime officials and several members of Congress in order to prop up support for the regime on Capitol Hill: “There are many more that are interested in a meeting,” Parsi wrote, “including many respectable Democrats. Due to various reasons, they will contact you directly.”

Parsi’s intense lobbying campaign for better relations with the regime and also for preventing the delisting of the MEK has clearly nothing to do with the Iranian people’s interests. Far from it, its main motivation is to ensure that the regime’s interests are preserved by keeping the MEK constrained and under constant pressure. The fact that, on several occasions, the regime’s official at the UN praised Parsi’s articles as “excellent,” serves to reveal the main beneficiaries of his efforts in Washington.

Parsi’s lobbying campaign to prevent the delisting of the MEK has clearly nothing to do with the Iranian people’s interests. Far from it; its main motivation is to ensure that the regime’s interests are preserved by keeping the MEK constrained.

The truth is that the Iranian regime has been involved in a multi-million dollar campaign to discredit the MEK and curtail the organization’s activities in the West because it fears and sees first-hand the organization’s social base inside Iran. A May 7, 2008 Wall Street Journal report said, “Iranian officials for years have made suppression of the MEK a priority in negotiations with Western governments over Tehran’s nuclear program and other issues, according to several diplomats who were involved in those talks.”

And how conveniently Parsi disregards the following fundamental facts about the case:

The main motivation behind the State Department’s listing was to curry favor with the mullahs. In September 2002, for example, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs during the Clinton Administration, Martin Indyk, told Newsweek, “[There] was White House interest in opening up a dialogue with the Iranian government. Top Administration officials saw cracking down on the [MEK], which the Iranians had made clear they saw as a menace, as one way to do so.”

  • In July 2010, the US Court of Appeals in D.C. “ordered the State Department to review its designation of the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran as a foreign terrorist organization, strongly suggesting the designation should be revoked,” according to the Washington Post.
  • The July rulingstates, “Some of the [State Department] reports included in the Secretary’s analysis on their face express reservations about the accuracy of the information contained therein.”
  • In 2004, after an exhaustive 16-month investigation of each and every MEK member in Iraq by seven different US agencies, including the State Department, the US Government acknowledged that “there was no basis to charge any member of the group [MEK] with the violation of American law,” according to the New York Times.
  • The State Department’s own top counterterrorism official, Dell L. Dailey, advised to have the MEK removed from the list in 2008, but then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice rejected the proposal, according to the New York Times.
  • In June 2008, the United Kingdom removed the MEK from its terror list after a special tribunal called the proscription “perverse,” and the English Court of Appeals said even the government’s classified and secret material “reinforced” its view that the MEK is not involved in terrorism. The European Union also decided to take the group off its list in January 2009 after the Court of First Instance ruledthat the EU’s evidence “is manifestly insufficient” to justify the continued designation of the MEK.
  • The French Judiciary dropped all terrorism and terrorism financing charges against the MEK after an eight-year investigation.

The fact is that the terrorism label against the MEK has been challenged, discredited, and deflated not by “lobbyists,” as Parsi naively claims, but by high-ranking international courts and judges, not just in the US, but in the European Union and Britain as well, unless Parsi wants to claim that the judges were on the payroll of MEK, too!

It is ironic to see Parsi, who is engaged in an intense lobbying campaign to prevent the MEK’s delisting, accuse prominent former US officials supporting the MEK, which include three former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, two former heads of the CIA and a former FBI director, nine former State Department officials, an Attorney General and the First Secretary of Homeland Security, of being essentially on the MEK’s payroll! Does Parsi consider himself more patriotic and protective of US national security interests than the likes of General James Jones, General Hugh Shelton and General Wesley Clark.

In a speech before tens of thousands of Iranians in Paris on June 18, 2011, Secretary Tom Ridge said that during the “entire period of time” he served in Washington, “we looked at threats and we looked at terrorist organizations, those individuals or those groups that were threatening the security, the safety of the United States of America never once, not once, never ever, ever, ever did MEK appear on a list as being a threat to the United States of America.  They are not a terrorist organization.”

But, Parsi thinks his evidence trumps all this national security intelligence. He flaunts as one of his “sources” a discredited report by RAND against the MEK. But he deliberately forgets to mention that the individual who oversaw the compilation of that report was James Dobbins, who is a leading expert with the Campaign for a New US Policy on Iran (CNAPI), which was created by (guess who?) Parsi himself!

Needless to mention, a 134-page book was published in January 2010, which provided a plethora of evidence, documents and statements disproving RAND’s biased and ill-intentioned assertions.

A central part of NIAC’s agenda is to dissuade dissidents abroad from speaking out against the regime. Those who do speak out are branded – you guessed it – as “warmongers.” In fact, in January 2008, during a meeting on Capitol Hill, when asked why NIAC and Parsi have been silent on the killings in Iran and why they refuse to talk about human rights violations in Iran, Parsi himself said, “NIAC is not a human rights organization. That is not our expertise.” It certainly isn’t. It certainly isn’t when it comes to the Iranian regime, but somehow NIAC becomes the foremost expert on these issues when it comes to the MEK. Go figure.

In an August 2006 letter to the Iranian regime’s ambassador to the UN, Parsi revealed his amicable relationship and close cooperation with the regime official in the context of opening up some political breathing room for the regime in Washington. “Hope all is well and that you are back from Tehran,” Parsi wrote to Javad Zarif, adding, “Would love to get a chance to see the proposal [from Tehran] or to understand more what it entails.”

Is it any wonder then, that in an internal email to an NIAC project manager, Parsi reassured him that going to Iran will not carry any risks because “NIAC has a good name in Iran”? He added, “In fact, I believe two of our board members are in Iran as we speak!” There was no mention, however, of what possible instructions those two board members came back with.

Ali Asghar Tasslimi is an Alumni of NC State University in Mechanical Engineering, a human rights activist and an independent investment banker. Mr. Tasslimi’s youngest brother was executed by the Iranian regime in the early 1980s. He was 19.

Last Updated (Saturday, 16 July 2011 17:08)

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Iranian opposition group pushes to be removed from U.S. terror list

July 15, 2011 by
CNN
Friday, July 15, 2011
By Jamie Crawford, CNN National Security Producer
Backers of an Iranian opposition group rallied outside the U.S. State Department on Friday demanding it be removed quickly from the U.S. list of terrorist organizations, pointing to a court ruling issued a year ago that found its rights had been violated.

Rally Demands De-listing of the MEK, Protection for Camp Ashraf

More than 100 supporters of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, also known as MEK, congregated in northwest Washington to accuse the State Department of dragging its feet in deciding whether to keep them on the list of “Foreign Terrorist Organizations.”

Specifically, they alluded to a ruling issued last July by a federal appeals court in Washington. The three-judge panel found that Mujahedeen-e-Khalq’s right to due process had been violated, because the State Department had not allowed the group to contest certain information used to justify its designation on the terror list.
“President Obama keeps saying he is with the Iranian people, he needs to show it right now,” Shirin Nariman, a supporter of the group, told CNN at Friday’s rally. “If he is really with the Iranian people, he needs to allow the main opposition group” to work inside Iran and around the world to push for the ouster of Iran’s ruling hard-line government.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Friday that the U.S. agency is currently “undertaking a review” as to whether Mujahedeen-e-Khalq should be on the terror list. The final decision, as to whether the designation will be kept or rescinded, will be made by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
“Now, my understanding is that the MEK Council provided additional information related to this review on June 6th,” said Toner. “And we’re currently reviewing this new material.”
Mujahedeen-e-Khalq was put on the list by President Bill Clinton’s administration in 1997 as part of an effort to engage what was thought to be a more liberal leadership than the current powers in Iran, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The group has many supporters in Congress, and several former high-ranking government officials have supported its removal from the terror list.
The group maintains a presence at a location called Camp Ashraf in northern Iraq, where more than 30 people were killed and several hundred injured in clashes with Iraqi security forces earlier this year.
The group was offered sanctuary in Iraq under former President Saddam Hussein, after his government waged an 8-year war with Iran. It was then protected by American forces after Hussein’s regime fell. Camp Ashraf’s status has become a source of international friction since it was transferred again to Iraqi government jurisdiction.
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Iranians protest US ban on opposition group

July 15, 2011 by

Iran Focus

Friday, 15 July 2011
Washington, DC, Jul. 15 – Hundreds of Iranians rallied Friday outside the US State Department on the anniversary of a US Federal Court of Appeals ruling in favour of the main Iranian opposition group, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), urging the Obama Administration to revoke the group’s status as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation.

DC Rally across the State department Demands Immediate De-listing of the MEK

A spokesperson for the demonstrators said they were protesting against the Administration’s delay in announcing a decision on the MEK’s status and to demand the group’s de-listing.

The State Department recently missed the statute-mandated 180-day deadline for a decision.
Iranians who attended the protest included representatives of Iranian-American communities, subjected to the adverse consequences of the MEK’s designation, including those with relatives in the MEK’s main base, Camp Ashraf, Iraq, and in Iran.
Over the past few weeks, senior Iranian officials, including commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) have been urging the US to maintain the MEK on its terrorist list.
On 16 July 2010 the Federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled unanimously that the Secretary of State had erred in refusing to grant a petition by the MEK to have its terrorist status revoked. The Washington Post reported that the judgement had strongly suggested that the State Department should remove the group from the FTO list.
In addition to a growing roster of former senior US government officials, some 130 Members of Congress have endorsed resolutions calling for the removal of the MEK from the FTO list, emphasising that any decision to the contrary would violate the statutory criteria.
At one point in the colourful rally, children held birds symbolising 36 residents of CampAshraf who were killed by Iraqi armed forces in an attack on the camp in April.
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Iran, Mujahedin-e Khalq, and the US State Department

July 15, 2011 by

Originally published on www.stopfundamentalism.com

At the end of June, the world watched as Iran test-fired 14 medium range missiles capable of reaching US and Israeli bases in the Middle East.  According to British Foreign Secretary William Hague, Iran has also been carrying out covert missile tests, “including testing of missiles capable of delivering a nuclear payload.” In Syria, the Islamic Republic exercises its influence by assisting the worn-down Assad regime in brutally suppressing the Syrian people.  And in Iraq, we continue to see the hand of the Iranian regime in the ongoing violent insurgency, as well as in Maliki’s government.

Tehran’s growing influence indicates a failure of Western policy towards the Islamic Republic. The policy of the United States and the European Union towards Iran has consistently been timid, often reminiscent of Europe’s appeasement of Adolf Hitler with the Munich Pact. The history of Western relations with Iran since the Revolution of 1979 shows continuous attempts by the West to reach out to the mullah’s regime with the hope of finding some favorability, only to see the mullahs rebuff those overtures. And what has consistently been a go-to practice in appeasing Tehran? The harassment and terrorist listing of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK).

After being forced into exile, the MEK has continued its struggle for democracy. Some 3,400 members of its members are based at Camp Ashraf in northeastern Iraq. The group also remains on the US State Department’s Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list. However, evidence suggests the terrorist designation of the MEK arose purely out of appeasement of the Iranian regime. A day after the FTO list was released in 1997, the Los Angeles Times reported:  “One senior Clinton administration official said inclusion of the People’s Moujahedeen was intended as a goodwill gesture to Tehran and its newly elected moderate president, Mohammad Khatami.”   The United Kingdom and the European Union both followed the United States’ lead in designating the MEK as terrorists, but in recent years, after respective court cases which showed the designation to be faulty, the MEK was removed from both lists in 2008 and 2009 respectively.

But what has been the effect of this terrorist designation of the MEK? If the US and the EU were attempting to appease Tehran, did they succeed in containing and taming the mullahs as they set out to do? The answer is a resounding “no”. The only thing which the terrorist designation of the MEK has achieved is the restriction and harassment of the residents of Camp Ashraf. Most recently, the world stood by and watched on April 8, 2011 as Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, clearly under instruction from Tehran, ordered a brutal attack on the residents of Camp Ashraf, ultimately resulting in 36 deaths and hundreds of injuries. One of those killed was Asiyeh Rakhshani, my 29-year-old adopted sister, who grew up in our family and went to Ashraf to join the campaign for democracy in Iran.

By designating the MEK as a terrorist organization, the US is complicit in these horrid crimes. A recently leaked cable from the US Embassy in Iraq shows that after a US diplomat questioned Maliki as to the conditions in Camp Ashraf, “The PM then expressed some frustration and questioned why the [Government of Iraq] had to act so responsibly towards an organization determined to be a terrorist group by both Iraq and the U.S.” So long as the US upholds the MEK’s fabricated terrorist label, Maliki’s government will continue to feel justified in committing these atrocities.

Numerous prominent and diverse American politicians have come out in support of the MEK, from Tom Ridge and Rudy Giuliani on the right, to Howard Dean and Patrick Kennedy on the left. Additionally, 84 lawmakers in the House of Representatives, Democrats and Republicans alike, have sponsored H.Res. 60, urging the Secretary of State to remove the MEK from the Department’s terrorist list. Furthermore, on July 7, the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs held a hearing on the recent massacre in Camp Ashraf. During the hearing, two former military commanders, as well as former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, condemned the attacks on Ashraf and called upon the State Department to delist the MEK.

It would be not only ludicrous, but also impossible for an organization which was engaged in terrorist activity to garner such tremendous support in Washington.

However, as the movement to delist the MEK gains widespread support among former senior U.S. government officials, the Iranian regime has reacted desperately by embarking on a misinformation campaign to prevent what is evitable. To this end, it has employed the services of the discredited National Iranian American Council (NIAC), perceived by many observers of the Iranian scene to act as a “lobby” for the Iranian regime. Indeed, an investigative report revealed that NIAC and its president Trita Parsi had skirted lobby laws in promoting rapprochement with the regime in Tehran.

In July 2010, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a ruling ordering the State Department to review the terrorist designation of the MEK, strongly suggesting the designation be revoked.   The State Department must make a decision soon; we cannot afford to wait for another brutal attack on the people of Camp Ashraf.

There are those who fear that if the US were to take a harder stance on Iran, military conflict would ensue. These fears are not baseless. If the past decade has taught us anything, it is that military intervention can be ineffective, counterproductive, and above all, tragic. However, there is a fine line between engaging in military intervention and no longer pursuing failed diplomacy. The terrorist designation of the MEK has not only failed to appease the Iranian regime, it has resulted in severe harm and restriction for an organization devoted to the liberation of the Iranian people. The State Department has a moral and legal obligation to undo this grave error and delist the MEK.

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Iranian opposition “executed” in America before trial

July 14, 2011 by
United Press International
Thursday, July 14, 2011
By JAVAD MIRABDAL and JAVID SHENASI
SAN FRANCISCO, July 14 (UPI) — Almost exactly a year ago, on July 16, 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals ordered the U.S. State Department to re-evaluate the “terrorist” designation of Iran’s main dissident movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq.
After an inexplicable yearlong delay, the State Department continues to drag its feet even as the biggest state sponsor of terrorism — the Iranian regime — sardonically uses the label as a pretext to kill MEK members and supporters in Iran and through its proxies in Iraq.
Many are left wondering why Washington is so conciliatory toward Tehran’s demands despite the regime’s rogue behavior.
The inclusion of the MEK — an organization dedicated to establishing a democratic Iran — on the U.S. terrorist list has a murky history and even more intriguing are the motivations.
In essence, terrorism is the last thing it’s about. What it is and has always been about is placating the tyrannical regime in Iran.
“Iranian officials for years have made suppression of the MEK a priority in negotiations with Western governments, according to several diplomats who were involved in those talks,” according to The Wall Street Journal.
In 1997, Tehran got its wish. Enamored with the (spurious) “reformist” streak in Tehran, and in order to instigate a thaw in bilateral relations, Washington took several unilateral steps, most important among them restricting the MEK.
“The inclusion of the [MEK on the terror list] was intended as a goodwill gesture to Tehran,” a senior U.S. official told the Los Angeles Times at the time. In 2002, another official described it as “‘a signal’ of the U.S.’s desire for rapprochement with Tehran’s reformists.”
Tehran interpreted the MEK’s listing as a sign of American weakness, and in the ensuing months and years, it intensified its nuclear activities and terrorism.
Still, as several former high-ranking officials have said, the MEK was kept on the list even “during the administration of George W. Bush, in part out of fear that Iran would provide (improvised explosive devices) to our enemies in Iraq, which of course the mullahs are doing anyway.”
Kowtowing to pressure from Tehran, in 2001 and 2002, Britain and the European Union followed suit both blacklisting the MEK but they were unable to produce a shred of evidence to actually back up the allegations against the organization.
Predictably, both the United Kingdom and the European Union were forced to delist the MEK in 2008 and 2009, respectively, following successive court rulings.
In 2007, U.K. courts concluded that the designation of the MEK was “perverse,” a highly unconventional criticism of a government decision. And, the country’s highest court noted that after seeing all the evidence, both open and classified, that it “reinforced” its view that the MEK is not a terrorist group.
Indeed, the MEK has explicitly and repeatedly rejected all forms of violence as far back as a decade ago. Its members in Camp Ashraf, Iraq, are unarmed civilians and are considered “protected persons” under the Fourth Geneva Convention. All members were investigated and interviewed thoroughly by agencies like the FBI and the State Department after the 2003 Iraq war during a 16-month investigation. According to the U.S. government itself, none had violated U.S. laws.
The July 16, 2010, appeals court decision said that the MEK’s due process rights were violated and questioned the State Department’s flawed evidence. The decision “strongly” suggested that the designation should be revoked.
The clock continues to tick on an issue that is not simply a political one, although its implications are strategically important. As seconds go by, the State Department’s deliberate delay in implementing the court ruling helps raise the specter of another massacre against thousands of lives in Ashraf.
The pro-Tehran government in Iraq is using the label as a pretext to commit abhorrent crimes against humanity in Camp Ashraf. As recently as April, 36 residents in Ashraf were killed in a massacre that provoked international outrage and calls for an impartial investigation.
The U.S. government, which bears responsibility for the residents under international law, must spearhead an investigation and reassume protection of Ashraf.
A growing roster of prominent senior U.S. officials who have served in the administrations of presidents Obama, Bush and Clinton have also called on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to delist the MEK.
At a conference on Capitol Hill in March, former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey said, “There are many reasons, including MEK’s close cooperation with the United States in exposing Iran’s nuclear program for removing MEK from that list.”
Nearly 100 members of Congress have also co-sponsored a resolution, calling on Secretary Clinton to revoke the MEK’s designation — and the list is growing, including U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., who heads the House Select Committee on Intelligence.
In March, during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., told Secretary Clinton: “I asked for a classified briefing of the relevant subcommittee, the State Department refused because of the litigation, the intelligence community provided it. And frankly, after that classified briefing, I thought that perhaps there was nothing done this century that justified the MEK being on that list and it provided substantial ammunition to the belief that the MEK is on the list as part of the peace offering or concession to Tehran.”
The appeals court judges reflected the same sentiment in their July 16 ruling. They observed that the State Department evidence “included in the secretary’s analysis on their face express reservations about the accuracy of the information contained therein.”
Former CIA Director James Woolsey made an apt observation when describing the July 16 court opinion, “What the Department of State has done is what the red queen does in ‘Alice in Wonderland’ … execution first, then trial.”
In reviewing the MEK’s designation, Secretary Clinton should base her decision on facts and evidence rather than on political considerations, either intended to mollify the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism, or resulting from a lack of political fortitude to stand firm in the face of the Iranian regime’s intransigence.
(Javad Mirabdal is a transportation engineer and a human rights activist. Javid Shenasi is an expert in Natural Pollution Discharge Elimination, working with California Department of Transportation.)

 

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Landmark House Hearing Probes Massacre at Camp Ashraf and U.S. Responsibility, Urges De-listing of MEK

July 12, 2011 by
PRNewswire
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
 
WASHINGTON, July 12, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — On Thursday July 7, 2011, a landmark hearing, entitled “Massacre at Camp Ashraf: Implications for U.S. Policy,” was held by the Oversight and Investigation Sub-Committee of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.
 
Among those who provided testimony in the hearing were: Ms. Neda Zanjanpour, a survivor of the massacre at Camp Ashraf; Michael Mukasey, former Attorney General of the United States; Col. Gary Morsch, M.D., Chief medical liaison between Camp Ashraf and the U.S. military, Colonel Wes Martin (Ret.), Former Base Commander of Camp Ashraf; and Ray Takeyh, Senior Fellow, Council of Foreign Relations. The hearing was chaired by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA).
 
In addition to the Ranking Member Russ Carnahan (D-MO), the Subcommittee members Ted Poe (R-TX) and David Rivera (R-FL), Representatives Bob Filner (D-CA), Co-Chair of Iran Human Rights and Democracy Caucus, Brad Sherman (D-CA), and Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) also took part in the hearing. Representatives of the U.S. Committee for Camp Ashraf Residents (USCCAR) and relatives of the residents also attended the hearing.
A brief video clip showed scenes of the April 8th massacre at Ashraf by the Iraqi Army operating under the direct order of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. It was followed by a briefing in which Ms. Zanjanpour, responded, via a live video link from Ashraf medical clinic, to questions by Members.
 
A Canadian citizen who studied at York University, Zanjanpour went to Ashraf in 1999 at the age of 20. She testified that she had been wounded “when an Iraqi soldier threw a grenade at me, which exploded between my legs.”
 
“The day before the attack, the U.S. embassy in Baghdad told us that the Iraqi forces were going to launch an operation. Despite our pleas to the commander of U.S. forces – which had been at Ashraf since April 3rd – to stay, his unit was ordered out of the Camp at 9:20 p.m. on April 7th. That left us completely defenseless in the face of a massive assault by the Iraqi forces.”
 
She said Ambassador James Jeffrey’s comments that the MEK should be relocated inside Iraq amounts to “asking Ashraf residents to submit to the demands of the Iranian regime… We will never surrender to the Iranian regime by going to concentration camps in Iraq where we could be murdered away from international spotlight.”
 
In his opening remarks, Rep. Rohrabacher said, “Why was a U.S. unit deployed at Camp Ashraf ordered away just hours before the attack? We would have liked to have asked State Department officials these questions, but we were told no one was available to testify today at this hearing. This stonewalling can only go so far before it becomes a cover up.  … U.S. appeasement of this crime is part of the story.”
 
He noted that the continued blacklisting of the MEK “is used to justify actions like the April attack.” “The United Kingdom and the European Union have removed the MEK from their terrorist lists. We should quit playing games and also remove the MEK from the terrorist list before it results in another massacre,” Rohrabacher added.
 
“During our trip to Iraq last month, we met with numerous people regarding the slaughter at Camp Ashraf on April 8th. Not surprisingly, we heard a lot of different and conflicting stories. What is not in dispute is that over 30 Camp Ashraf residents were killed, over 300 wounded by Iraqi security forces. These killings have been widely condemned, and I concur… A full, fair and independent investigation will provide for the best means of finding a final determination of what happened and will allow anyone found responsible to be brought to justice and help prevent future attacks,” Subcommittee Ranking Member, Russ Carnahan added.
 
Congressman Ted Poe said, “To date, the administration has done nothing to hold Iraq accountable for the attack.” He added that he also opposes the proposal to displace Ashraf residents in Iraq.
 
With regards to MEK’s designation, Congressman Poe said, “I have seen the classified evidence and it is unconvincing. The State Department has not made its case that the MEK should stay on the FTO list. The MEK should not be used as a political tool to appease brutal dictators.”
 
Congressman Filner stated that “The MEK and its leader have come up with the one legitimate policy that is best for us as Americans. They call it the third way. That means we do not invade Iran, but we do not appease the existing mullahs. We get out of the way and let the resistance do what it can and should and wants to. The listing of the MEK as a terrorist organization is getting in the way, so we ought to de-list.
 
“After all our treasure of money and men and women who have died and been injured there, do we want the Iranians to take over? And yet that is a potential. Ashraf is a symbol of what we need to prevent. After all this intervention in Iraq in a decade, the Iranians come in. The MEK favors a non-nuclear, democratic, secular regime. I think that’s something we can all agree to,” the Californian Democrat added.
 
In part of her remarks, Rep. Jackson Lee said, “Nowhere should we tolerate the heinousness of the attack on the residents of Camp Ashraf. And no matter how deep the friendship is or the recovering history of Iraq, it should not be tolerated.
 
“If the ambassador of Iraq can hear my voice, he needs to come to Congress. He owes this Congress an apology… He owes both an apology to the people in Camp Ashraf, to the people of Iraq who will suffer as well because they are diverse, and he owes an apology and explanation to the world family, and particularly the United States of America, for the treasure that we lost attempting to provide democracy there,” the Texas Democrat concluded.
 
The former Attorney General Michael Mukasey in his submitted testimony outlined the steps the sub-committee should take to remedy the “terrible situation” at Camp Ashraf. He said: “The committee should first seek explanation from the State Department about the current and future policy towards Ashraf and oppose their displacement inside Iraq; it should try to assure that a UN force will protect Ashraf residents until their safe resettlement.”
 
He also raised questions about the removal of an American unit before the attack and called for the committee’s investigations into that and the failure to provide adequate medical care after the fact.
 
Third, he said, “the committee should seek an answer from the State Department about its review of the MEK’s designation in accordance with a July 2010 court of appeals ruling. And, fourth, the committee should look into what the State Department has done to enforce what is known as the Leahy Amendment that bars assistance by the U.S. to any military unit that has committed human rights violations. “
 
Colonel Wes Martin (Ret.), Former Base Commander of Camp Ashraf, said, “The terror and torment that is being cast upon the [MEK] and Camp Ashraf needs to stop. I know from experience, the [MEK] is not a terrorist organization. My recommendation in this effort is for the People’s Mojahedin to be immediately removed from the State Department terrorist list.”
 
“They do need protection of U.S. military forces,” he added while strongly dismissing the U.S. Embassy-Baghdad proposal to relocate Ashraf residents inside Iraq. Col. Martin also debunked allegations by the Iranian regime that the residents of Ashraf were being held against their will. “One perpetual rumor worthy of specific address concerns members of the MEK being held against their will. I was able to validate through specific occurrences anyone wishing to leave has that choice,” Col. Martin added.
 
The third witness, Dr. Gary Morsch, who served as the Battalion Surgeon at Camp Ashraf, stated, “There were no findings of any terrorist activities, disloyalty to the mission of the U.S. military in Iraq, illegal activities, coercion of MEK members, hidden arms, or any evidence that the MEK were not fulfilling their agreement with the U.S. Military to fully cooperate with and support the goals of the U.S. in Iraq…”
 
He said Ashraf residents were highly educated and “had come to Ashraf to voluntarily serve with the MEK to establish a free and democratic Iran, and were now working with the U.S. to promote democracy in Iraq.”
 
Referring to the siege on Ashraf, he said the residents are being denied basic security and other necessities. “It was with great sadness,” he said, “that I have now witnessed the abandonment of the residents of Camp Ashraf by the very government that had asked me to risk my life to defend these same people.”
 
He said relocation of the residents within Iraq, “in my judgment, would be a recipe for disaster.”
 
Takeyh emphasized, “It would be wrong and immoral to forcefully repatriate inhabitants of the camp back to Iran. Given the fact that the Islamic Republic lacks even the basic rudiments of an impartial justice system, they are likely to be met with certain death. Nonetheless, the international community under the auspices of the United Nations should begin to search for new homeland for the MEK personnel…”
 
“There will be a list of questions offered to the State Department concerning the massacre at Camp Ashraf, including when they knew about what and who gave orders for our military to leave, etc., etc… And we will expect an answer. If we do not get an answer, I will proceed with making sure that we have a follow-up hearing until those questions are answered,” Subcommittee Chairman, Rep. Rohrabacher said in his closing statement.
 
“Let’s just make sure that no more of these people [Ashraf residents] who are friends of freedom are murdered by the mullah regime in Tehran or by their stooges who now control the government of Iraq,” he added.
 
Camp Ashraf is home to 3,400 members of Iran’s principal opposition, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), including 1,000 women.

SOURCE U.S. Committee for Camp Ashraf Residents (USCCAR)

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Michael Rubin and the Mujahedeen-e Khalq

July 9, 2011 by
Originally published on www.stopfundamentalism.com
Commentary by  Ali Safavi
 
As Iran’s main opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), earns a well-deserved spotlight around the world, Michael Rubin’s sagging fortunes have compelled him to lambast the organization once more. In a commentary last week, Rubin churned out another rant against the MEK. Although coated with a thin layer of supposedly calm and rational argument, the piece is bloated with clear bias and unjustified accusations.

Both in this commentary and in an earlier article, Rubin is distraught and annoyed about the growing list of top former US government officials and Members of Congress, including the Republican Presidential hopeful, Michele Bachmann, calling for the MEK to be scratched off the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations. The group was designated in 1997 in an attempt to open dialogue with Tehran.

Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey said in June 18, 2011 gathering of tens of thousands of Iranians in Paris, “After all, if an organisation cannot be treated under the law as a foreign terrorist organisation, unless it either engages in terrorism that threatens the welfare of the United States or has the capability and intent to do so, then the MEK which has renounced violence should have no difficulty getting itself off that list.  And so in July 2010, the MEK won a ruling from the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit that the Secretary of State must reconsider the designation of MEK as a foreign terrorist organisation because the information she was relying on was not sufficient.”  Judge Mukasey is in agreement with a Federal Court of Appeals ruling last July and hundreds of members of Congress, not to mention a roster of former security, intelligence and diplomatic officials around the world.

But Rubin begs to disagree. “I consider the MKO a terrorist group,” he overconfidently proclaimed in the earlier commentary. Well then!

In his July 3 commentary, he adds that, “The only thing that can make Iranians rally around their current leadership is American outreach to the MKO.” That preposterous logic betrays the fact that the MEK is seen around the world as the largest and most organized opposition to the Iranian regime. To find an analogous case, that is like saying the only thing that could make the French rally around the Vichy regime was an international outreach to the Free French forces. It is clearly faulty logic. Indeed, if what Mr. Rubin says is true, then Tehran should be delighted if Washington reached out to the MEK!! To the contrary, mullahs are paranoid about the MEK and have made it a major priority to prevent its removal from the US watch list.

Five years ago, I debunked the utterly ludicrous allegations he had recycled in the article and borrows from Iranian intelligence services in full detail. Rubin, unsurprisingly, fails to mention it.

Rubin, who periodically baffles readers with his anti-MEK slurs, rumor mongering and outlandish lies, grabs onto whatever straw he can, even accusing the group of “making up” intelligence about the Iranian regime’s nuclear program (never mind that the group’s revelations in 2002 and dozens of subsequent press conferences triggered the IAEA’s investigations into the regime’s program and were described by a senior analyst at the Los Alamos National Laboratory as being “correct 90 percent of the time”).

The only party engaged in “making up” lies is Rubin himself. He says the MEK has no support inside Iran (another interesting verdict). “During my time in Iran,” he explains his evidence, “it was clear that … all [Iranians] detest the MKO.” Two observations are in order here.

First, when was the last time that he was in Iran, and on whose expense and whose invitation was Mr. Rubin visiting? And what did it take for the Iranian regime to tolerate his stay in Iran? Some Iranian ‘NGO’ or ‘independent’ academic institution!? For all we know, the Iranian Foreign Ministry have over years been quite generous to other MEK detractors, including Flynt Leverett and his wife Hillary Mann Leverett by inviting them to all-expenses paid visits to Iran.  

Second, “All Iranians” detest the MEK, he claims. It is unclear if the man is trying to be funny or if he is just a bad liar, since he offers no evidence to back up his assertions. He clearly acknowledges that a section of the Iranian population has supported the MEK, and that the group’s members have been brutally suppressed by the Iranian regime, including in 1988 when tens of thousands of MEK members were massacred in Iranian prisons. How is it that most of those who have been hanged in Iran for political charges since the summer 2009 uprising have been those associated with the MEK?

But, even disregarding all that evidence of support for the group, what does the level of support have to do with the group’s terror label in the United States. Clearly, whether the MEK has support inside Iran or not should be judged by the Iranian people themselves, not by Rubin.  

A shallow brook, they say, babbles the loudest. There is no substance to what Rubin says, and for good reason. The truth is that Rubin has always been at his wits’ end when it comes to his rants against the MEK. That’s why he lies. But the so-called Iran expert tries to do so with a clumsiness that inspires only pity.

In the past, dismayed about pro-MEK voices on the Hill, Rubin claimed that the MEK has enticed hundreds of members by sending “pretty young women” to cultivate “friendly lawmakers and commentators” and by offering them “Christmas baskets full of nuts and sweets.”

Now, he accuses the prominent personalities supporting the MEK, which include three former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, two former Supreme Allied Forces’ Commanders, nine former State Department officials, an Attorney General and two former heads of the CIA and a former FBI director, of being essentially bought off by the MEK.

“MKO lobbying is slick,” he has said, using the Iranian regime’s abbreviation of the group’s name. The American personalities, he says, “should acknowledge the honorarium or consulting fees they receive from the group.”

When asked about receiving an honorarium by a reporter at a June 2, 2011 panel in Washington, DC, former Attorney general Michael Mukasey, put that baby to rest, “You have an array of people here today from various political parties differing on many public policies.  I don’t know of a single one of them who has articulated a viewpoint that they don’t believe, though are getting fees today or not. I also tell you as a matter of historical fact that the pamphlets of Thomas Paine were not distributed for nothing.  That doesn’t undercut either the persuasiveness of them or the historical correctness of them.”

Rubin should be the last person to counsel others on honorariums, since reports surfaced back in 2006 about his contacts with private contractors in Iraq when he worked in the Pentagon. A 2006 New York Times article apparently alleged that he improperly hid an affiliation and funding from a private contractor in Iraq. “Normally, when I travel, I receive reimbursement of expenses including a per diem and/or honorarium,” Rubin was quoted as saying.

It was the great American President, Abraham Lincoln, who said, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” I wonder if Michael Rubin has come across that apt comment.

Ali Safavi, a member of Iran’s National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), is President of the Near East Policy Research (NEPR)

http://www.stopfundamentalism.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1117:michael-rubin-and-the-mujahedeen-e-khalq&catid=60:editorial&Itemid=49

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The Real Face of Realpolitik: Camp Ashraf and the U.S. FTO

July 8, 2011 by

The Huffington Post

The U.S. State Department’s inclusion of Iran’s main opposition group, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), in the list of foreign terrorist organizations (FTO) has been fiercely criticized by members of Congress and former U.S. government officials over the past several months. The criticism was heightened when on April 8, 2011, under a direct order from Tehran, Iraqi forces launched a vicious attack against the residents of Camp Ashraf in Iraq, home to 3,400 MEK members. Videos of the assault show Iraqi soldiers armed with AK-47s shooting at unarmed camp residents in cold blood.

The April massacre at Camp Ashraf brought into light not just the political blunder of the MEK’s terrorist designation, but also its tragic humanitarian cost. Today, the lives of 3,400 people are at the mercy of an Iraqi government which uses the U.S. designation as a justification for murder. Many of the residents at Camp Ashraf have relatives in the US or Western Europe. Some, including my own brother, are former residents of the United States.

On June 18, tens of thousands of Iranian exiles gathered near Paris, France, to call for the protection of Camp Ashraf and the removal of the MEK from the State Department’s FTO list. Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran — a broad political coalition which has the MEK as a member organization — dozens of parliamentarians from around the world, including the U.S., and several former senior U.S. officials, called on Washington to live up to its obligation of protecting Camp Ashraf as a valuable ally in the region. Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge described Ashraf as “a thorn in the side of the real terrorists, the Iranian regime.”

Indeed, the humanitarian challenges at Camp Ashraf and the folly of designating the MEK as a terrorist organization has been recognized by Washington for quite some time. A 2009 State Department cable released by Wikileaks highlights the “Catch 22” situation the U.S. has found themselves in, stating:

If the government of Iraq acts harshly against the MEK and provokes a reaction, the [U.S. government] faces a challenging dilemma: we either protect members of a foreign terrorist organization against actions of the Iraqi security forces and risk violating the U.S.-Iraq security agreement, or we decline to protect the MEK in the face of a humanitarian crisis, thus leading to international condemnation of both the U.S. government and the government of Iraq.

Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Ashraf residents have been caught in the crossfire between the Iranian regime, Iraq, and the United States. In 2003, the U.S. bombed Camp Ashraf, resulting in hundreds of causalities and at least 50 deaths. It was later revealed that the bombings were part of a quid-pro-quo between the Iranian regime and Washington. Tehran offered to repatriate some al-Qaeda suspects if the U.S. cracked down on the MEK.

In 2004, MEK members at Camp Ashraf voluntarily handed over weapons they used to protect themselves in exchange for protection by U.S. forces. The U.S. recognized them as protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention. Meanwhile the MEK continued to serve as an invaluable ally by being the first to expose the regime’s secret nuclear weapons program. Several American Generals and Colonels have also commended the MEK for saving American lives by providing them with intelligence regarding the Iranian regime’s meddling in Iraq, and with the locations of planted roadside bombs.

Fast forward to July 2009 when Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s forces invaded the camp and murdered 11 residents. Video footage provided by camp residents show a U.S. soldier with a handheld video camera recording the attacks as they were happening. When the soldier is approached by a blood-soaked camp resident, he is seen shaking his head, mumbling, “I’m sorry” as he turns his back, entering an SUV, and drives away from the camp.

Just hours before the most recent attack on April 8, 2011, the U.S. military unit that was in Camp Ashraf for the previous four days was ordered out of the Camp. The order was given despite the objections of the Colonel in charge, who had requested further reinforcements to protect the residents, and flouting international laws such as the UN RtoP (Responsibility to Protect) mandate, of which the U.S. is a member state.

For those of us who remain oceans and continents away from our loved ones, barred from visits, and restricted to following events on our TV screens, we are forced to live with the fact that our family members in Ashraf are being used as human bargaining chips, mere pawns in the global game of Realpolitik. As a result, they are deprived of the most basic human rights that should be afforded to refugees and defenseless civilians.

This gut-wrenching fact haunts us day in and day out as we wait in apprehension, keeping one eye on the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Ashraf, and the other on the State Department’s inexplicable delay in revoking the MEK’s designation. Next week will be one year since the federal court of appeals for the District of Columbia issued a landmark judgment, concluding that the Secretary had erred in not revoking the MEK’s designation and strongly suggested that she remove the label. It is time for Secretary Clinton to abide by the rule of law.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hajar-mojtahedzadeh/the-real-face-of-realpoli_b_892469.html

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