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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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July 29th,
2009 - Iraq Mounts Attack on Iranian Dissidents News article from Time Magazine |
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Iraq Mounts Attack on
Iranian Dissidents No Longer Protected by U.S. Forces, Iranian Camp within Iraqi Borders Brutally
Sieged - With Iran’s Approval From CBS News July 29, 2009 When the U.S. began turning
over security to the Iraqis, it stopped protecting some valuable allies -
thousands of Iranian exiles living in Iraq. Left alone, their camp outside
Baghdad is now under attack. For two days, Iraqi police
have beaten the resident and no food or doctors have been allowed in - all
with the approval of Iran's government as CBS News chief foreign affairs
correspondent Lara Logan reports. It started peacefully and quickly
turned violent, with Iraqi police using wooden sticks against a group of
unarmed civilians. The civilians were Iranians
living inside Iraq - members of an Iranian opposition group, known as the
MEK. It was the MEK that provided
the U.S. with intelligence on Iran's nuclear program. "Were it not for the
MEK, the world would not be in the position to find out about Iran's nuclear
weapons program and the mullahs may have had the bomb," said Ali Safavi
of the National Council of Resistance of Iran. The MEK have lived in Camp
Ashraf - a quiet community featuring fountains and manicured gardens - for
decades, providing intelligence on Iran. The Iranian government wants them
expelled and accuses them of being involved in the recent unrest in Iran. Since the U.S. invasion, the
camp's roughly 3,000 residents have been living under U.S. protection. But
that ended in January when the Iraqis took control under the security
agreement. Now the U.S. appears to have
washed their hands of the people of Ashraf. "It is a matter now for
the government of Iraq to resolve," said Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton. Images captured by residents
inside Ashraf, showed the dead and wounded. Not even the women were spared.
Residents told CBS News at least 11 people were killed, hundreds wounded and
30 arrested. The numbers are impossible to verify because the Iraqi
government has sealed off the camp. The attack was the latest
sign that American influence in Iraq is waning, just as Iranian influence
rises. Iraq's Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki and his government are becoming
increasingly pro-Iranian. "The Iranians would
have to cross the border to get at them directly, because Camp Ashraf is
clearly over the border," said Kenneth Katzman of the Congressional
Research Service, "but they have an obviously willing ally in Prime
Minister Maliki willing to do their bidding/." In Iran, the government
praised the Iraqi action, saying, "It is appreciated that they have
decided to clean up the Iraqi land from the filthy existence of
terrorists." © MMIX, CBS Interactive Inc.
All Rights Reserved. External link: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/07/29/eveningnews/main5196623.shtml At Tehran’s Bidding? Iraq
Cracks Down on a Controversial Camp By Rania Abouzeid Time Magazine July 29, 2009 Acting without informing the
U.S., Iraqi troops on Tuesday, July 28, seized control of a camp of Iranian
exiles ferociously opposed to the regime in Tehran. It was the most
significant operation undertaken by Baghdad since U.S. troops withdrew from
the cities last month and is most likely a nod to Iran's ayatullahs, who
brand the group as terrorists, as does the U.S. Yet in the convoluted
politics of the region, the U.S., despite having tagged the organization on
its terrorist list, had been a sort of guarantor of the safety of the
Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) because it was the enemy of its enemy Iran. The MEK, however, had become
an embarrassing inconvenience to Baghdad's increasingly cozy ties to Tehran.
Although Iraq has repeatedly said it is in its own national interest to
remove the group, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, meeting with
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in late February, left little doubt as to what
he expected the Iraqis to do. "We await the implementation of our
agreement regarding the expulsion of the hypocrites," he was quoted as
saying. On Tuesday, Baghdad obliged.
Iraqi security forces wrenched control of the MEK base at Camp Ashraf from
its leaders after they denied an Iraqi request to establish a police station
inside the camp. Clashes ensued that, according to the MEK, left six
residents dead and some 400 wounded. (The casualties have not been independently
verified.) Baghdad denies using lethal force. A video distributed by the MEK
shows baton-wielding security forces beating unarmed protesters and using
water cannons on a crowd, as well as several bloodied individuals. Clashes continued Wednesday,
according to Shahriar Kia, an MEK spokesman contacted by phone. Iraqi
security forces remain in the camp and "have surrounded all the
places," he told TIME. Most of the camp's 3,400 residents have begun an
open-ended hunger strike, Kia added, until Iraqi troops withdraw from Ashraf,
U.S. troops assume control and the perpetrators of the attacks are tried and
punished "in an international tribunal on the charges of crimes against
humanity." Those are big things to ask for and unlikely to happen anytime
soon, especially given that the U.S. military is looking to untangle itself
from Iraq. Baghdad took over
responsibility for Camp Ashraf, located some 40 miles north of the capital,
from the U.S. military earlier this year as part of a wide-ranging bilateral
security pact. Since then, Iraqi officials have ratcheted up the pressure,
repeatedly warning that they would close the camp on the grounds that its
residents were "terrorists" and "illegal aliens." Still, several deadlines
came and went, and the stalemate ensued. The MEK - around 1,000 of whom hold
non-Iranian travel documents issued by governments including those of the
U.S., Canada, Australia and the European Union - called Baghdad's bluff,
steadfastly refusing to leave. Iraqi troops, meanwhile, stayed on the
outskirts of the 19-sq.-mi. camp (which the U.S. disarmed in 2003),
maintaining a small but highly visible presence and venturing inside only
with the consent or knowledge of the MEK. So why did Baghdad act now?
The sudden escalation with Ashraf may have more to do with a bruised Iranian
regime's bid to stamp out its opponents both at home and abroad than with any
pressing Iraqi national interest. Iran's regime - roiled by continuing
postelection unrest at home that poses the most serious threat to its rule
since the 1979 Revolution - may have finally put its foot down regarding the
MEK. At the same time, it's a
win-win for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who gets to burnish his
tough-guy credentials ahead of national elections early next year as well as
please his allies, the ayatullahs. There's little love in Iraq for the MEK,
which was welcomed by Saddam Hussein in the mid-'80s, when he was at war with
Iran, and supplied with a training camp and armaments. The group is accused
of repaying its benefactor by helping quash Kurdish and Shi'ite rebellions -
charges the MEK has denied. For now, the U.S. hasn't
stepped into the fray, insisting that the situation is a matter for the Iraqi
government to handle. "This is completely within their purview,"
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters in Washington, adding
that the U.S. had received assurances that Baghdad would not forcibly
transfer Ashraf's residents, especially to countries like Iran where they may
face persecution or physical harm. The MEK has long said that
it will not leave its "home" in Ashraf. But on Monday it indicated
- for the first time - that its members in Ashraf may be willing to return to
Iran if strict, and many would say unrealistic, conditions are met. The group's
elusive Paris-based leader, Maryam Rajavi, said in a statement that MEK
members would return if Tehran promised in writing to the U.N., the
International Committee of the Red Cross, the U.S. and Iraq that the MEK
"would enjoy immunity from arrest, prosecution, torture, execution, and
formation of any criminal record and that they will enjoy freedom of
speech." There appear to be few
incentives for Iran to sign such declarations and allow potential agitators
back home, especially now. Relocation to other countries is a more likely
option, especially given that the European Union and Britain have removed the
organization from their terrorist lists, potentially paving the way for the
MEK's transfer. But that remains to be seen. Currently there are few
signs of an immediate end to the standoff in Ashraf. If casualties escalate,
the U.S. may feel compelled to intervene, complicating Iraq's delicate
balancing act between its two rival allies, the U.S. and Iran. Perhaps the
most likely, and best-case, scenario is a return to the old stalemate, with
the MEK refusing to leave and the Iraqis refusing to kick them out. But for
now, Iraqi troops are inside the wire, not on the outside looking in at their
unwanted guests. External link: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1913399,00.html Who are the
MKO and why did Iraqi forces storm their camp? Iraq flexes its muscles at Camp Ashraf and shows military independence
from America, as the Iranian exile group's long strange trip draws to a
close. By Dan Murphy Christian Science Monitor July 29, 2009 raqi security forces today
violently wrested control of the sprawling compound of an exiled Iranian opposition
movement, killing at least seven of its residents in the process. The raid was the latest
assertion of total military independence by Iraqi forces from US control.
Video of the event, with Iraqi soldiers delivering severe beatings to unarmed
residents, adds evidence of brutal tactics within the new Iraqi Army. But it also may be the
beginning of the end of the one the strangest sideshows of the entire Iraq
war as the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki flexes its muscles
and seeks closer ties with Tehran. The raid came as Defense
Secretary Robert Gates, who had long urged Iraq against a violent takeover of
the camp, visited the country on Wednesday. Though the Iraqi government had
repeatedly asked the Iranian exile group, the Mujahidin e Khalq (MKO, or
People’s Mujahedin), to leave the country, US officials said the raid came as
a surprise and the BBC quoted US Gen. Ray Odierno as saying the government
had promised to deal with the MKO in a “humane fashion.” Camp Ashraf, the object of the
raid, has been the principal home of the MKO since the Iranian group allied
itself with Saddam Hussein in the 1980s, receiving weapons and training from
his regime. Hussein used them as shock-troops against Iraqi Kurds and Shiites
who rose up against his regime in the 1990s. The camp is currently home
to about 3,500 Iranian exiles and a smattering of fellow travelers from the
US and Europe who subscribe to the group’s secular blend of Islam, Marxism,
and feminism and a “cult of personality” centered on the group’s leader,
Maryam Rajavi, according to a 2007 State Department report. On her website, Mrs. Rajavi
called Wednesday’s clash at Camp Ashraf “a war crime, a crime against
humanity, and a futile attempt by [Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali] Khamenei to compensate
for his defeat in the face of the nationwide uprising.” She called for an
international delegation to investigate. They’ve abided in the camp
for the past six years, largely under US protection. When the US invaded Iraq
in 2003 it disarmed thousands of MKO fighters, but was left with a quandary.
The group’s members are despised by mainstream Iraqi society as tools of
Hussein’s repression and they were designated a terrorist organization by the
US State Department for their murders of civilians. (American citizens have
been among their victims.) But they were also enemies
of another American enemy, Iran, and some US politicians thought they could
be a useful asset against the Iranian regime. When Iraq’s first post-Saddam
government, appointed by the US, tried to kick the MKO out of the country,
the US stepped in. The US even turned down Iranian overtures to trade Al
Qaeda operatives in Iranian custody for MKO members in American hands. The US administration
eventually gave them protected status - something they enjoyed until the US
handed the control of the camp over to Iraq in January. Since then, Iraqi officials
have redoubled their efforts to get rid of the group. MKO members inside Camp
Ashraf have rejected Iraqi efforts to encourage them to return to Iran or
find third countries to take them on. Iranian officials have promised amnesty
to any members who voluntarily return and about 250 have taken them up on the
offer so far. But the group has continued to behave semi-autonomously. On
Tuesday, after Iraqi police sought to set up a post inside the camp, they
were attacked by MKO members and two died, according to Agence France Press -
setting up today’s confrontation. Maliki’s Shiite-led government
is seeking stronger relations with Iran, and many of its members remember how
the MKO helped Hussein violently control their own community. When Maliki
himself was an exile from Hussein’s regime and on the run from a death
sentence at home, his Islamist political party received assistance from Iran. Iraq’s national security
advisor Muwaffaq al-Rubaie has been warning for months that Iraqi patience
with the group was wearing thin. He described them as “brainwashed cult
members from a high-trained terrorist organization” in an April interview and
added that “if they resist and carry out this engineered crisis there will be
some pain.” The groups members are noted
for their fervor and devotion, something which probably contributed to
today’s clashes, which also left dozens of Iraqi forces injured. Shortly
after Ms. Rajavi was arrested by French police in 2003 on suspicions she was
using MKO offices to plan terrorist attacks on Iranian diplomatic missions in
Europe, a number of her followers in Paris set themselves on fire and some
died from their burns. A 2005 report by Human
Rights Watch reported the use of torture and detention of MKO members who
expressed criticism or wished to the leave the group at Camp Ashraf. It also
details the demands made of members over the years based on the demands of
Rajavi, who views herself as Iran’s president in waiting, and her husband
Massoud Rajavi. For instance, in the late
1980s after a series of military failures, Mr. Rajavi declared that they were
failing to overthrow the Iranian regime because of insufficient commitment to
the cause, and said that people’s attachment to their spouses were a
distraction. He ordered all members of the organization immediately divorced,
and personally collected their wedding rings. The Rajavis themselves remained
married, however. Massoud has not been seen since the US invasion of Iraq and
its not clear if he’s dead or in hiding. The reclusive Maryam Rajavi
is based in Paris. External link: http://tinyurl.com/n82kfh |