THE WASHINGTON TIMES 

Deadline for closing camp of 3,400 nears

A senior U.S. official Wednesday warned Iraq against using violence to evict unarmed Iranian dissidents from a camp north of Baghdad by the end of the month, as a top member of Congress accused the State Department of moving at a snail’s pace to prevent what he called a possible massacre of the residents of Camp Ashraf.

“There is no doubt that the situation is serious. We are worried about the possibility of violence, and we are working flat out to ward it off,” Daniel Fried, special adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Camp Ashraf, said at a House subcommittee hearing.

The Iraqi government has set a Dec. 31 deadline to close Camp Ashraf, home to about 3,400 members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK).

The State Department, which listed the MEK as a terrorist organization in 1997, is reviewing this designation after a July 2010 order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs oversight and investigations subcommittee, snapped at Mr. Fried after he said the State Department is working at an “intense pace” to persuade the Iraqi government to extend the deadline.

“Maybe it’s an intense pace for a snail,” the California Republican said.

Mr. Fried told lawmakers the Iraqi government regards its decision to close the camp as a legitimate exercise of its sovereignty.

“Yet the exercise of a sovereign right does not obviate the need for care and restraint,” he said. “We expect the Iraqi government to refrain from the use of violence.”

“At the same time, the camp leadership must respect Iraqi sovereignty and refrain from acts of provocation, as we seek to resolve this matter,” he added.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers called on the Iraqi government to extend its deadline to close Camp Ashraf and on the Obama administration to take the MEK off the terrorist list.

Mr. Rohrabacher warned of the consequences of not preventing what he said was the imminent massacre of the camp’s residents by Iraqi forces.

“Why are we, the United States, being an accomplice to this crime? If they are deported or subjected to another massacre, the blood in the sand will also stain the Gucci shoes of the U.S. State Department,” he said.

The MEK, also known as the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran, was responsible for terrorist attacks in Iran in the 1970s that killed several U.S. military personnel and civilians, according to the State Department.

Camp Ashraf’s residents surrendered their weapons in 2003 as part of a cease-fire agreement with U.S. forces.

In June 2009, the United States turned over control of Camp Ashraf to the Iraqi government, which gave written assurances that it would treat the residents humanely.

However, Iraqi forces have attacked the camp several times, most recently on April 8, when the security forces killed 36 residents, including eight women.

The residents of Camp Ashraf fear that they will be arrested and executed if they are sent to Iran.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/7/us-warns-iraq-against-eviction-of-foes-of-iran/

THE NEW YORK POST

As he hosts Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Monday, President Obama will need to hastily tie upIraq’s loose ends — including CampAshraf, a mess that could quickly turn ugly and cloud Obama’s chance to claim “promise fulfilled” on ending the Iraq war. 

Maliki: Closing camp to please Tehran.

At year’s end, as US troops leave Iraq, Maliki plans to evacuate Ashraf. Since 1986, when Saddam Hussein took them under his wing as part of his war against Ayatollah Khomeini, the camp near the Iraq-Iran border has housed members of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) — a group that Tehran’s mullahs consider a formidable foe. 

When they handed over their weapons to theUSmilitary in 2005, ending their status as an armed militia, camp residents received written American assurances that they wouldn’t be sent back toIranand that we’d guarantee their safety. 

Yet that safety is in serious doubt, because Baghdadis much friendlier to Tehran these days. Last spring, as soon as US forces withdrew from the area, Iraqi troops entered Ashraf  (now more a city than a “camp”), indiscriminately killing residents. More recently, loudspeakers started blaring music and propaganda into the camp at all hours. 

Residents now fear that if they leave Ashraf, they’d quickly be “disappeared.” Though unarmed, some plan to resist Maliki’s evacuation, or “defend our home,” as they put it. 

Ali Safavi, aWashingtonactivist with close ties to the MEK, says they believe Maliki is “doingTehran’s bidding,” planning to prosecute, kill or hand them over to the mullahs. 

The United Nations is trying to determine how many of the 3,500 people at Ashraf can be relocated. Though a few have legal rights to live in America, Canada, Australia or Europe, most hold only Iranian citizenship — and returning there is likely a death sentence. 

The UN sorting process is complex, and Western countries aren’t eager to offer asylum to MEK members. So the UN’s point man inIraq, Martin Kobler, is calling on Americaand others to press Maliki to extend his year-end deadline for six months. And, as a European diplomat put it, “We also do need a long-term solution.” 

Since America is unlikely to accept all (or even most) Ashraf refugees, the least Obama can do is make a public demand, standing next to Maliki, that the Iraqi extend his deadline while we actively look for resettlement solutions. 

Yes, the MEK is often described as a cult. And (despite formidable bipartisan lobbying efforts) the State Department is yet to remove the group from its list of terrorist organizations. 

But Ashraf  shouldn’t become a violent coda to our Iraq withdrawal. For years, the group has been helpful in exposing Iran’s nuclear secrets and undermining the program. And we promised safety. 

If we leave them toIran’s mercy now, we confirm the impression that we’re a fair-weather friend to the enemies of our enemy. Worse: If we fail to tie up such loose ends inIraq, we deepen the impression that we’re running scared after spending eight years and much blood and treasure there.  

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/iran_refugees_fear_bloodbath_ZADOaK9T4NKqoEd75moSxM

THE NEW YORK TIMES

WASHINGTON — Republican legislators pressed the Obama administration on Wednesday to remove an Iranian opposition group known as the M.E.K. from its list of terrorist organizations and to do more to resettle about 3,400 members of the group who are confined in a camp in Iraq .
 
The lawmakers said Iraq ’s close ties to Iran put the residents of the camp, Camp Ashraf , in danger, pointing to two incursions by Iraqi security forces that left dozens of people dead. And they demanded that the administration commit to guaranteeing the safety of the camp’s residents as Iraq prepares to close it by the end of the year.
 
Representative Dana Rohrabacher, Republican of California, said that without such guarantees, the entire camp was at risk of being massacred by Iraqi forces, adding, “the blood in the sand will stain the Gucci shoes of those in the State Department.”
 
Ambassador Daniel Fried, who was recently appointed to oversee United States efforts on this matter, said diplomats were working to persuade Iraq to keep the camp open long enough to allow the United Nations to resettle residents to other countries.
 
Mr. Fried said the State Department was reviewing its terrorist designation against the M.E.K. He reminded lawmakers that during the 1970s, the M.E.K. had been involved in a campaign of attacks, including the assassination of six Americans and the bombings of American companies in Iran .
 
He also called on the M.E.K.’s leaders in Iraq and around the world to do their part to resolve the conflict over the camp in a peaceful and orderly way.
 
“A humane and secure relocation is possible,” Mr. Fried said, “but it will take intense and serious efforts by all parties.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/08/world/middleeast/republicans-want-iranian-group-mek-off-terror-list.html

PRNewswire

BERKELEY, Calif., Dec. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The campaign to prevent another massacre at Camp Ashraf, Iraq, home to the 3,400 Iranian dissidents, at the hands of the Iraqi forces took a major step today with the launch of a television ad campaign running in the Washington, DC metropolitan area in the days leading up to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s December 12th visit to the White House.  

The advertising campaign hopes to make the public aware about the imminent danger facing unarmed men, women and children in Ashraf and to make sure that President Obama and Secretary Clinton intervene to resolve the situation peacefully and protect the residents.

The ad, titled People of Ashraf, contains images from the attacks on Camp Ashraf in both 2009 and in April of 2011 and urges President Obama to honor America’s promise to protect the people of Ashraf.

In 2004, the U.S. signed an agreement with each and every resident, promising to protect them until their final disposition. In breach of that written commitment, however, the administration handed over the protection of Ashraf to the Iraqi Government, which at the behest of the Iranian regime, has imposed a siege on the Camp, denying the residents fuel, medicine, and visits by family and friends. In two deadly attacks in July 2009 and April 2011, Iraqi forces killed 47 unarmed residents, including eight women, and wounded about 1,000.

The ad, produced and paid for by the Iranian-American Community of Northern California (www.iacnorcal.com) also invites the public to attend a White House rally for the protection of Ashraf residents on December 12 beginning at 10 a.m.  

The use of the graphic video is not for shock value.  The imagery in the ads demonstrates to viewers that the gravity of the situation of the people at Camp Ashraf is not hypothetical: Iraqi forces have killed unarmed Camp Ashraf residents before and all indications are that they will do so again if Maliki is allowed to follow through with his plans to block U.N. access and close Camp Ashraf by the end of 2011. Despite appeals by the international community and the U.N. for an extension of the deadline, Maliki insists on closing down Ashraf as planned.

The ad will air extensively in the days leading up to Maliki’s visit on all major networks and cable channels. Click hear:  http://www.usccar.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/CampAshrafAd_0002.wmv

SOURCE Iranian-American Community of Northern California

RELATED LINKS
http://www.iacnorcal.com
http://www.usccar.org

SCOOP INDEPENDENT NEWS

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, under investigation by a Spanish court for war crimes against Iranian dissidents in Camp Ashraf, Iraq, is coming to Washington for a hand hake with President Obama at the White House.

As his December 5 op-ed piece in the Washington Post shows, Maliki is visiting Washington to try to defuse the well-placed fears about Iraq, under his leadership, becoming a proxy state for Iran. And, again judging by his commentary in the Post, he feels behooved to justify, albeit ineffectively, his made-in-Tehran plans to either forcibly relocate Camp Ashraf residents to multiple detention centers in Iraq before extraditing them to Iran, or kill them all at Camp Ashraf if the residents resist the forcible relocation.

So, in either case, President Obama may be shaking hands with a war criminal responsible for massacre of the unarmed and defenseless population in Camp Ashraf. That’s not exactly the kind of poster image President Obama may want for his re-election campaign. He must therefore seize the December 12 White House visit to convey in the most unequivocal terms the United States’ resolve in seeing the camp residents unharmed. 

ASSOCIATED PRESS

UNITED NATIONS –  Iraq should extend its Dec. 31 deadline for closing a camp of Iranian dissidents, and third-party nations should accept its residents for resettlement to prevent a violent standoff, the U.N. envoy for the country said Tuesday.

Martin Kobler, the U.N. special representative, told the Security Council Tuesday that camp residents’ lives must be protected and that their forced removal would be “ill-advised and unacceptable.”

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has said Camp Ashraf, housing more than 3,000 members of the People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, must be closed by year’s end.

Iraqi Ambassador to the U.N. Hamid Al-Bayati told the council his country “doesn’t want to force anybody to go back to Iran.”

But he nevertheless indicated it will close the camp as planned “with the relocation decision … implemented by the end of the year.”

The Iraqi ambassador said about 900 residents hold dual nationality with third countries they may be able to go to.

Kobler told reporters after the session that U.N. officials are working on a peaceful solution to the problem, “but we cannot do it in the remaining time.” He asked Iraq again “to give us time, to give us space to bring about a humanitarian solution.”

The U.N. envoy also encouraged other countries to take in Camp Ashraf residents so they don’t have to return to Iran.

While Kobler was briefing the council, about three dozen Iranian-American protesters gathered in a small park across the street from U.N. headquarters to demand that the deadline for the camp’s closure be called off.

Several protesters carried yellow flags that declared “PROTECT ASHRAF” in blue letters, while others carried the flag used by Iran before the 1979 Islamic revolution.

“UNSC: Cancel the Deadline, No to Displacement, Blue Helmets for Ashraf,” read one protest sign, calling for the council to dispatch U.N. peacekeepers to protect camp residents.

“Ashraf protection is U.N. obligation,” the protesters chanted.

The camp in eastern Iraq houses Iranians dedicated to the overthrow of the Iranian government. Members of the group won refuge at Ashraf decades ago during the regime of Saddam Hussein, who saw them as a convenient ally against Tehran.

Since Saddam’s fall in 2003, the exiles have become an irritant to Iraq’s Shiite-led government, which is trying to bolster ties with Iran. A deadly April raid on the camp by Iraqi forces drew international criticism of Baghdad’s treatment of the group.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/12/06/un-wants-iraq-to-extend-iranian-dissidents-camp-deadline/

UN News Center

United Nations – The United Nations envoy for Iraq today voiced concern over the situation in a camp housing several thousand Iranian exiles and urged the Iraqi Government to extend the deadline for closing down the settlement as efforts continue o find a peaceful solution that conforms with international law.

THE HILL